Sorry to hear about your frustrating experience with them. I think they ask about the use case to avoid things like crypto mining and such. I've typically just

Sorry to hear about your frustrating experience with them. I think they ask about the use case to avoid things like crypto mining and such. I've typically just responded with "graphics rendering" or "gaming" and I get approved within an hour. To answer your earlier question: yes, the machine state persists. I think I pay $5 per machine per 50GB drive space per month. So it works out around $5 per month, plus the hourly cost of the machine. I hope you're able to persist and try them out. I've been very impressed when I've needed to use it.