Why is iCloud so restricted to the Apple Ecosystem!?

[DarwinOSX]

Everything you said is wrong. if you had done 5 minutes research instead of building a strawman to knock down you would know that.
Try here;
http://www.apple.com/icloud/
1. First of all most of iCloud is free but it costs Apple money. There is no reason for Apple to allow it on other devices. However there is an iCloud control panel for Windows (free) and of course iCloud is available from any web browser.
http://www.apple.com/icloud/setup/pc.html
2. Apple has been very clear from day one, and there have been a zillion or so articles saying that any music from any source will work. The $24.95 for iTunes Match per year is to pay off the music companies for this blanket license and I'm sure it was a very hard deal to strike.
3. There is an api for apps to sync that any developer can use. Not just Apple apps.
4. All iCloud accounts have 5 gb free storage and you get get more for dramatically cheaper than Dropbox.
Books have nothing to do with iCloud. You can get books on an Apple device from many different sources. i can't believe I even have to say this.
5. Mail works with any pop/smtp which is oh..everything, Gmail, Exchange, and many others.
6. Find my friends = free and why on earth and how would Apple make this work on devices they have no control over? Really?
7. You honestly think you HAVE to have all your iPhone apps on your iPad?
8. You have to have a free Google account to use and share calendars. You have to have a free iCloud account to use and share calendars. How exactly is that different?

This is the most obtuse post I have ever seen here and that is saying something.

I am just realising now how heavily tied into the Apple Ecosystem the whole of iCloud is. It's going to really limit it's usefulness to me. For example:

• iTunes in the Cloud - requires having purchased your mp3s in on iTunes, which I generally don't do.
• Photo stream - Okay that's quite useful.
• Documents in the cloud - Requires iWork, which I don't use. A feature akin to Dropbox would have been more useful.
• Apps - I don't want all my iPhone apps on my iPad.
• Books - Limited to the iBookstore which I don't use
• Backup - Okay that's quite useful.
• Calendar - I already have cloud ability using Google Calendars, but Apple's version is more restrictive: you can only share your calendar with other iCloud users.
• Mail - tied to Apple email only, whereas I use Gmail
• Contacts - Okay that's quite useful.
• Find my Friends - Useful, but not all my friends have an iPhone so again this feature is restrictive

I know Apple try to lock people into the Apple Ecosystem generally, and I consider myself pretty well within this system - but I am not going to exclusively use Apple products (such as iWork) just to get the most out of iCloud.... and that makes it less powerful than it's competitiors such as Google Calendar, Google Documents, Dropbox, etc.

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No.
iTunes music came out some time after the iPod was introduced and you could always put music of your own on it. Always.

Seriously people...

Because that's the apple way. The same thing was asked back in the day when the iPod was king. You could only sync it with iTunes and apple's drm'd music. Apple produces products/services that are closed to other competitors. asking this question will only get you the answer "just because"

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Explain how it is difficult to get out of iCloud.

You can export or migrate every single thing in iCloud. I could move all of my iCloud information to Google in minutes.

The whole point of a "restricted" ecosystem is to make it difficult to leave once you're in it. You become so reliant on the services and the way everything is integrated that it'd taken too much work/money to switch to a competing device/service. I've bought into the Apple ecosystem, so even though certain Android phones look tempting I won't even think about it. Too much invested in apps/music/videos/books. Apple won my business and as long as they keep putting out quality products/services, I don't mind giving them more of my time and money.