Sure, but there's a difference between losing the website hosting your bottomless mimosa brunch school reunion, and a non-profit organisations losing all their shared files after taking up an offer of a no-cost a license from MSFT to support their mission. The nature of the "thing" matters IMO.

Depends on what information was given at the moment of "handout." I cannot remember reading anywhere that your data would be deleted when you opened a free account. Data and storage limits, that was it.