I want to download a backup from one of the many backups made automatically. The only choice I can see in the console UI is to restore the backup. I certainly don't want to restore it. I want obtain an earlier backup and make a comparison with the current data set.
If this is possible ( I hope so ), how do I go about it? Is it necessary to use the Admin API do this task?
On-premises there's the same problem. It is not possible with the console UI to download any of these backups, nor can one of the on-demand backups be downloaded. The backups from scheduled-backup also cannot be downloaded with the console UI either. The admin-api does not provide any endpoint to let you download any database.
You can only close a current db in the console UI and then download it.
The only way to download one of the preserved/on-demand backups would be:
Closes all relevant databases.
Download these for a local backup
Then restore from the preserved/on-demand backups.
Close them too
Download them
Remove the files
Re-upload the initial downloaded files
I am sure that you have thought this scenario up yourself too and it is a lot of steps to do something that should be very simple. Not very efficient....
On-premise (or on a vm in a cloud, which is basicly on-premise too) I have the advantage to use the Explorer/Finder to get to my backups, on Cloud you don't. Hence I never use Cloud, only on-premise.
@menno, that is the worst news I've had today 
I've been thinking that I had missed something. I've just been assuming that there was a section of the admin API that I had missed.
On-Prem you can use products like Otto to get access to your backups via a web console & download them 
The admin console download tool is terrible - as mentioned you do need to close databases which is a pain but even then the download usually fails. If it's a larger file with external data it generally craps itself and won't work, and even on large files the communication with host is lost during download, just terrible. Admin console should only be used to download very small files.
Cloud - it's a black hole for me I wouldn't have a clue.
I have no trouble negotiating with on-premise installations. I typically use scp to push/pull files. It's easy, lightweight, and can recover from any network interruptions.