Perhaps I should have said that part of the quotation that one should get relating to expected speeds at a given location should be related to your connection if you actually USE it.
Simple Math shows that quoted throughput multiplied by time is a maximum capability of a connection measured in TB/month. Personally I expect to use about a quarter of that capability from time to time, sometimes a little more usually less but not great volumes at peak times. Sure, I could move this to a data center for 3 x price and 10 x Data but then the hobby is not so hands on and less interesting.
The bottom line is that folks need to know that because of the limitations obscured by small print or the recent lack of information relating to upload speed it is going to take longer than they might think to back up that single 1TB drive and that such an endeavour will have an impact on normal browsing at certain times of day.
Confused as to how people are to know their throughput at any period without actually using the thing. Downstream throughput should not be affected by upstream STM. No operator can tailor a quote to specific usage cases.
Not sure how running someone else's code to index web pages and serve search results is hands on but to each their own.
Triggering upstream STM should not slow browsing. Or are you referring to uploading at the same time as downloading?
I am not a fan of VM's policies but I am not sure what your issues are or how you reasonably expect a mass-market ISP to comply with them.