I’m not sure if it helps, but here’s some background info on the history of hub backups. It’s a little hard to summarize briefly, but here goes.
For a while, local backups were the only kind, and they did not include z-wave or zigbee radio information. The exact reasons why are beyond my understanding, but there were technical limitations that required work by the development team to solve. I think it was more related to zigbee than z-wave, although I’m not positive.
That solution evidently included a decision to store the backup in the cloud. I’m uncertain if that was the only possible way to do it, but that’s how it was implemented. Cloud backups were rolled out as a part of the optional hub protect subscription service, which also includes an extended warranty with hub replacement.
Cloud backups became even more versatile when Hubitat released the C8 hub along with a functioning hub migration tool. Users that upgraded from a C7 hub to a C8 were even given the ability to save a cloud backup for migration usage, without needing to subscribe to hub protect.
So overall, I think the Hubitat team has done right by us as customers.
