Your comment that started all of this:

so... is ios reading all your messages now or what

You're message implies you think it's being sent off to Apple for processing because of this effect. You further prove this is what you meant later.

If course, the comment is technically correct. It is reading your messages. It has to to even display the text, so obviously it is. It always has been and always will, and the same goes for every other phone that has ever existed or will ever exist. It's a requirement for you to interact with it.

This does not mean it's being sent to Apple. It gives us no insight into whether that's happening either. It is neither necessary nor sufficient for that. All that we can understand from this feature is that your system is reading your messages, which again is a requirement for them to display them at all.

This is not defending Apple. It's arguing against stupid takes. It has nothing to do with Apple. I hate them and will point out when they're doing anything I even slightly don't like. This isn't evidence of anything (except being a dumb feature that I don't even want).