Agreed. The behavior that I'm seeing supports what you're saying, despite what the UI says and despite what that 9to5Mac article says.

So I guess you have to use iCloud backup to get it fully automatic. And of course they don't offer enough free iCloud storage space to make automatic backups be free, so the only way you can have automatic backup is to pay into that cash cow for additional storage. Too bad.

Now I'm even more interested in how those third party tools work out for Tahir.