Imho the relevant thing here is that if this is allowed to stand, by inflating the size of data the goverment can effectively hide any data it wants and block t

Imho the relevant thing here is that if this is allowed to stand, by inflating the size of data the goverment can effectively hide any data it wants and block the public from accessing it while retaining a veil of "nothing wrong done here". Additionally I would say that foi requests are generally fulfilled more by document categorisation than by page, especially if the case is not about military secrets where much more careful screening might be required.