I went through the same journey and never built on Google Map APIs ever again. The unreliability hurt more than the money. There's something pure about using a capitalistic API (e.g. AWS, Stripe, Twilio) where you know they're making a good buck off your usage, whereas with Google it felt like a side business that they'd change on a whim.

I feel similarly about brokerage accounts that are upfront about charging a transaction fee or checking accounts that have a clear minimum or fee. When it's "free", I'm always scared that I'll end up paying another way and what I'm relying on will get washed away.