I think that when you have an MS account with the automatic online key backup, BitLocker is actually turned on automatically, and the user isn't presented with the option to back it up elsewhere. You need to know about this, and manually back it up.

So the encryption of your personal computer is at the whims of the least competent employee at Microsoft?

I'm not exactly sure what your point is.

This has always been the case considering Microsoft made the encryption itself.