The answer, as the author points out, is yes. You can get them out via Google Drive. The author also thinks that Google is doing something bad by compressing a large uncompressed RAW file to 2mb, but that's the tradeoff you get for asking for unlimited storage from the service.
Google clearly states that photos synced to Google Photos with unlimited storage get compressed a lot. On the other hand, if you pay Google for more Google Drive space and use Photos to sync your images there instead, there is no compression.
I think he means bad in the sense of "8:1 compression means poor quality photos which shouldn't happen for a photo site" rather than bad in the sense of "google is doing something wrong, immoral or illegal".
Raw already is compressed. My 40D takes raw files around 12 to 15 MiB. They vary in size, so that's a first clue. Also, if you do the math, 14 bits per channel on those images comes out around 65 MiB.
My understanding is that most RAW formats such as CR2 already had lossless compression applied, so any compression would pretty much have to be lossy to some degree, especially a 8:1 compression.
I've uploaded that RAW file with the "Original" (paid) setting. It's ok when downloading in the web app, it seems to be compressed in the Google Drive view.
Google clearly states that photos synced to Google Photos with unlimited storage get compressed a lot. On the other hand, if you pay Google for more Google Drive space and use Photos to sync your images there instead, there is no compression.