I brought up the google drive plan because I know many people can't afford to buy a 2nd device. Not being literate enough to know you need a backup plan is beside the point.

And I'm not talking about pictures here. Before smartphones (or digital cameras I guess) nobody had backups of their pictures. You got the one copy and if it was destroyed that's it. Unless you used film and bought 2 copies but that's beside the point. That's a very low priority backup item. I'm talking about documentation, paperwork, important information in text form, passwords, etc. Things that literally everyone who has feasible access to a smartphone likely has or needs. All of that can be stored on a 15gb free plan. Anyone who is literate enough to use a random smartphone can do that. Pdfs and text files are tiny. Even pictures of documents can be tiny.

Not knowing you can or should do that is another problem entirely. I was once one of those people who was so poor the only screen I owned was a phone (and it wasn't even a smart phone). If you do not understand that you need to keep a 2nd copy of important information, whoever gave you that documentation or the government that created it is at fault. If someone ever says "do not lose this", it should be clear you might want to make a copy of some sort, physical or digital.