Good deal. My reaction is due to two basic problems related to this topic:
A) Microsoft absolutely did NOT make it broadly known that the "contacts+messaging backup" app is even out there. And even after they released the app, it took them some time (apparently) to make it so that phones that don't have SD card slots could backup their content and save it to the PC via the Documents folder on the phone. Ugh.
B) Folks here on Windows Central, be it on the News Page or here in the forums, often forget to stick that "backup, backup, backup" mantra on everything.
Especially in light of the fact that the "contacts+messaging backup" app not getting enough time in the spotlight for it to be what I would think of as being "common knowledge." We have so many new folks who aren't always the most technically-aware jumping into these Insider builds to play with the new features (like Messaging Everywhere) and getting burned when things don't work well ("because it's a beta!") that I get concerned about stuff like this.
I'm also disappointed that the more recent builds of W10M haven't just automatically included the app in the "Extras" section. I certainly did not know about the app until after I was already screwed up, myself. Thus, my overall annoyance with the topic.
For myself, I've become rather burned by Microsoft's clear and obvious inability to fix this annoying problem with any speed. It's also bad that they took it upon themselves to change the way the backend servers behave (to prepare for Messaging Everywhere, I assume) without warning anyone that they were doing maintenance that could impact the ability to restore SMS/MMS.
The fact that we don't have an easy way to
know that they're receiving and reacting to important problems like this is frustrating. A "big deal" or a "dealbreaker" as a Windows Mobile fan? Nah.. but still - the "radio silence" from them (until recently via Twitter) has been a pain point for me.
Anyway - it's cool. Glad we got this hashed out and thanks for helping folks out here!