iTunes sign in endless loop

Everytime I try to use iBooks, I'm end up in an endless loop:

Sign in to download from Apple Books

I use the same Apple ID (username/password) that I used to access the community here, and receive no error that my username or password are unrecognized. I hit sign in and the "Sign in" pop up clears....

...

for about 5 seconds then comes back.

I hit cancel instead...

.. it comes back in 10 seconds.

It is never satisfied ... it's like having a nagging significant other - the kind you dump after it gets too much.

I get it that Apple has NEVER been good at cloud services, but at this point, the could services have become unusable. And yes I've changed passwords and tried logging out of iCloud (which is another issue, in that it started to delete EV-RY-THING on my iBooks and other services before I hit cancel... since when does "Sign Out" mean "DELETE EVERYTING"?!??...

... Seriously...

You guys are starting to get as bad as Microsoft.

Lastly the bulk of my collection of e.Books were ePub documents that I brought in to iBooks. I'm not sold on storing everything in the cloud - especially as I just lost about 60 books when I "Signed Out" of iCloud.

I once had a conversation with a Rabbi at a wedding about gardening. I lamented that I had a lot of trouble getting grass to grow in my yard. His reply: "God is telling you that you should not try to grow grass in your yard."

The next weekend I paved it over in flagstone. The Rabbi was right.

Some well meaning, friendly advice....

Please, Apple... as a former fan boy quickly turning curmudgeon --- I am begging you to bring back the Apple doctrine of "insanely great", and admit your limitations. Maybe you ask too much of iTunes/iCloud. If you cannot code simple, easy to use cloud services, maybe that is just not for you.

And in this case.... it's not me.... it's you.

Please fix it!

With love,

FanBoyNoMore