After a backup, you’d go out to a coffee shop or on a plane only to find that the files in the synced folder you used yesterday, and expected to still be there, were not - but photos from ten years ago were available!
Today's Dropbox is a network file system with inscrutable cache behavior that seeks to hide from the users the information about which files are actually present. That makes it impossible for normal users to correctly reason about its behavior, to have correct expectations for what will be available offline or what the side effects of opening a file will be, and Backblaze is stuck trying to cope with a situation where there is no right answer.
Seems simple enough to do for Backblaze, no?
What i want is restores. The ability to restore anything from ideally any point back in time.
How that is achieved is not my concern.
Obviously Backblaze does not achieve that, today.
You're dodging the question. Wanting to ignore the side effects does not mean they won't affect you.
It would still happen with the first backup - or first connection of the cloud drive - though, which isn’t a great post-setup new user experience. It probably drove complaints and cancellations.
I feel like I’ve accidentally started defending the concept of not backing up these folders, which I didn’t really intend to. I’d also want these backed up. I’m just thinking out loud about the reasons the decision was made.
I am not aware of any evidence supporting this.