I don't think it was wrong to downvote the comment and the comment was unfairly pedantic and inaccurate. Anyone with even a tiny amount of scientific literacy

I don't think it was wrong to downvote the comment and the comment was unfairly pedantic and inaccurate. Anyone with even a tiny amount of scientific literacy knows what the phrase "since records began" means, and that phrase is entirely honest and not used at all to hide the size of the data set. OP's issues with a completely routine and accurate description, since they cannot be considered a fair criticism of normal language by an unbiased viewer, thus must be due to their scientific illiteracy or inexperience with the subject, or due to their politics causing them to "find any reason to object" leading them to settle on unfair and bad pedantry.