Apart from “works on stuff you didn’t buy from Apple” (a feature that I think isn’t in Apple’s interest to support well), what major features does it have that keychain syncing over iCloud doesn’t already have, or could easily add?
It goes beyond passwords. I use 1P to store documents, 2FA codes, IBANs, notes. You can also attach arbitrary metadata to each entry, and I don’t think there’s the ability to filter by category in the iCloud keychain.
Shared family vaults are the big thing for me -- I don't want to share _all_ of my passwords with my family, but 1P is a good way to share stuff like streaming service logins.
That might be because they want to make their own services more attractive (if so, I think they made the wrong choice), but also could be a legal thing.
https://www.apple.com/family-sharing/: “You can add anyone to your Family Sharing group age 13 and older and invite them to share an Apple Card”, so members of An Apple iCloud ‘family’ neither have to be family members nor live at the same address.
That’s broader than, for example, the TOS of Netflix (https://help.netflix.com/legal/termsofuse: “The Netflix service and any content accessed through the service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household”)
Apple might fear getting sued if they make it easy to share a Netflix password with members of a family plan.
Considering that Netflix’s ToS and Apple’s Family Sharing both say that they’re only meant for people in the same household, I don’t see “Apple might fear getting sued” as an issue.
Where do you read that for Apple’s services? Reading the “Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions” (at the confusing URL https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/), it doesn’t mention household, always spells “Family” with a capital letter, and as far as I can tell, only mentions these restrictions on who can join a Family:
“Family Sharing Rules: You can only belong to one Family at a time, and may join any Family no more than twice per year. You can change the Apple ID you associate with a Family no more than once every 90 days. All Family members must share the same Home Country”
