1. iCloud isn't reliable. Plenty of people are still having issues with duplicate entries and sync failures.
This! I tried iCloud when it first came out - it duplicated every appointment I had in my calendar so I disabled it. Since the loss of local syncing I've used iCloud again and on three occasions, every single diary entry has disappeared and I've had to re-enter them. iCloud may suit some, even most/many, however the ability to locally sync is, in my experience, far more reliable and Apple should never have removed the CHOICE for me to decide which I prefer....