So... no I didn't see you talk how expensive these might be, except when you are?
Claiming something isn't cheap, and even thinking of the bills "makes you weary" isn't talking about how expensive you think it might be? Then, I must ask.... what is it? From where I stand, you're talking about expenses and how high they can get to the point they make you "weary".
I'm not even discounting your points, but don't go criticizing somebody about their speculating about costs.. while you're speculating about costs.
I'm not speculating that running an online storage service for millions of people is expensive. If you think that's speculating, then it's also speculation that the sky sometimes looks blue or that red roses exist. Thinking otherwise is not speculation. It's just absurd.
Let me put it bluntly. I'm not criticizing anybody for speculating. I'm criticizing people for being wrong. The only valid argument you or anyone else can make is that the terms "expensive" or "cheap" are entirely relative. That's all.
Already in early 2013, MS noted that they had over 250 million OneDrive users.
https://blog.onedrive.com/over-250m-people-using-skydrive/
In 2014, MS had well over four million Office 365 subscribers. That was well before W10 was released, at a time when the only OS that had direct OneDrive integration (W8) was extremely unpopular. I have no idea what OneDrive's current user numbers are. It's almost two years later, and W10 has lead to a huge influx in additional OneDrive users, so no doubt the numbers will be much higher.
I don't know why it's necessary, but I'll help out with the math:
First, let's just outright ignore the millions of 365 subscribers with pseudo-unlimited storage. Lets also assume that not a single user has more than a 15GB storage quota, which we know is false. Finally, lets also assume that MS has grown its OneDrive user base, by no more than 50 million over the past two years, which is also extremely conservative. That leaves us with 300 million users with 15GB of storage (requiring 45GB to store redundantly), giving us a required storage capacity of about 13.2 million TB. Assuming a cost of $50 per TB, that gives us a cost of about 660 million dollars for storage alone... despite low balling every possible variable.
660 million is not chump change, not even for MS, and with that we've considered absolutely nothing except storage costs. We haven't yet factored in software development, staff, facilities, bandwidth, electricity, security... none of that. Let that sink in, and then also consider that according to Paul Thurott, OneDrive usage is expected to triple over the next two years!
Yeah... not expensive... right...
Let me also reiterate that I'm not saying MS can't afford this. They can. What I am saying is that these are not irrelevant expenses that MS can just ignore. Anybody asking the question "whether MS can afford this?" is pretty much clueless. The more relevant question is whether MS is getting their money's worth. Anything that costs hundreds of millions must have at least the prospect of a return. It's not very hard to imagine that MS may not be getting a return that is worthy of those expenses.
I don't know if MS is getting the expected ROI. My point is only, and has always been, that their OneDrive service not providing their money's worth, is not entirely unthinkable.