[ta1243]

Is it even possible to test a backup of a typical phone without first wiping the phone?

It's not like my backup of my ~/Photos directory where I can copy to a USB and md5sum the files on a separate computer and check the match.

[IncandescentGas]

Yes. You can restore your icloud backup to another target iphone without wiping the source iphone, as long as the target iphone has enough storage capacity.