You can use backup/sync software to copy stuff across automatically. Otherwise, I didn't say your pain-in-the-ass idevices went away, I just said you could reduce their pain-in-the-assness.
Backup the HDD and you'll be fine. Copy and paste and walk away. Personally, I have private pictures that I would never want put on any cloud service. Nothing in the world is 100% protected. There could be a bomb that drops on the building housing the servers. A fire could burn down your house/dwelling. It happens.
However, note that if you just move all your photos to an external hard drive, you don't have a backup.