I didn't say he was explicitly using Google Photos for file storage. I don't understand how this keeps getting misconstrued.

When you say "unlimited is unlimited, I'm not an asshole for using it that way, period" as though that's all there is to it, my comment is trying to show that in almost every case, unlimited doesn't mean unconditionally unlimited, and the example I provided was specific to the OP we're all posting on.

Google isn't penalizing anyone who is using Google Photos backup the way it's intended, so no one is being denied anything they were promised.

When a service is offered as conditionally unlimited, if all you see is the word "unlimited" and you skip over everything else and then start to abuse it, you are the asshole. It doesn't matter if that service is Google Photos (what we're talking about here) or any other service.

People need to stop getting so hung up on one single example which is relevant to the actual main topic.