Exactly. There's zero bait and switch here, especially when Takeout makes it so easy to export all your photos anyways.

You don't even need takeout, you can make your Photos folder appear in your Drive

They got rid of that

For now

Unfortunately there is no thing in the world that is proof from change, especially things you aren't paying for. If you have a problem with it you can use any of the other free photo upload services that will accept 15GB+ of your photos and will guarantee that free service for life.

I don't have a problem with it. This is a good thing for the industry that Google can't continue to offer unrealistic and unsustainable products for free. They set expectations that were hard to meet.

I think this serves as a warning and reminder to users.