I'd like to delete my Whatsapp account so that no one can message me there, for privacy reasons (don't like Meta getting my metadata). BUT don't want this to be irreversible. I have an iPhone. And I lack the technical savvy to switch to Android and perform backflips to export my chats and media in a readable format. So: I want to save a Whatsapp backup on iCloud, then delete my Whatsapp account, but retain the backup. I get the impression that if I delete my WhatsApp account, the iCloud backup disappears too. (And if I just delete the app, people will still message me; I'd rather they not be able to find me at all.)
Is there a way to save the Whatsapp backup from iCloud, so that when I delete Whatsapp, I retain the backup, and if I ever want to reactivate Whatsapp (with the same phone number), I can get these chats restored in the native Whatsapp chat history?