My point is, I've been printing from IOS (via AirPrint) and Android (via Google Cloud Print) for 5 years, never installed an app. I've also printed (wirelessly) from Mac and Windows, never downloaded their drivers, or installed any software, or created an account, or passed any personal data, etc. There's no subscription either. It just works as is.
As long as Brother will make printers that work that way, I will continue to buy them.
You can certainly do that on Epsons and other brands.
The app gave me much better experience by integrating with Dropbox, Drive, Evernote, etc. It's extremely easy to print/scan documents from/to the cloud.
The experience is different: Brother doesn't have any mobile app, which is an additional reason I like them.