Quoted from zombywoof:You do need iTunes if you want a local backup. I believe in maintaining a chain of custody for my data, and so do not back up to iCloud. Further, an iCloud restoration is excruciatingly slow.
Second that an iTunes backup is a must, as yes iCloud restores are awful. I couldn’t imagine restoring my iPhone XS 512GB using iCloud, would take a week even on my fiber connection. The speed problem with iCloud is apple and their iCloud restore process.