The lack of root is only significant because unlike in other vendors the built-in backup doesn't work reliably, and you can't use third party software.
But I'm very hopeful, recently they released this Messages update, they're working on introducing native RCS somehow (no idea how but I wish them well), and they recently made a first-class automated call recording.
And I'm syncing some of the app data already, but that is not a replacement for the OS apps.
Most of the data cannot be synced like this.