I don't see how your math checks out. From the article, let's say you started the service at introduction with the Pixel 6 (22 months ago) and it cost $45 per m

I don't see how your math checks out. From the article, let's say you started the service at introduction with the Pixel 6 (22 months ago) and it cost $45 per month. Today, you would have spent a total of $990 on that phone (which was worth way less than that at launch) plus services. You now have a used phone worth $200 tops and $100 in "store credit". That seems like a crappy deal unless you value premium Google services a lot.