Just a note: Make sure whatever you use to backup iCloud can handle files that are not currently synced to your device.
Arq (https://www.arqbackup.com) has a setting to "materialize" these files before backup for example.
interesting (the ‘materialize’ option in Arq). I wonder what it does to the files it ‘materializes’ after the backup … does it leave them on the local disk or does Arq instruct the service (dropbox or icloud) to make it cloud only again? I guess I’m wondering about the case where the total cloud footprint is larger than the local disk footprint.
Arq works with file system level snapshots. So I guess at one point all the files have to be present for the backup work. Not ideal for scenarios where the cloud data exceeds the local storage.