> Also there should always be hard limits available to turn on (maybe turned on by default).
Absolutely.
As I said on here a few days ago in a discussion about AWS finally launching hard caps ... I really don't buy the stories the US providers tell you that "its too difficult" or "what if you suddenly go viral".
The "viral" bit is easily solved through basic monitoring of metrics that everybody should be doing. I believe the cool-kids give it the fancy name of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE). All you need to do is top-up your balance / adjust your cap if your metrics are trending upwards for an explainable reason. Its not rocket science. Just set a reasonable yet affordable buffer above your most ambitiously expected figures.
As for the "too difficult" that's just a lie. Its 2026. You're a cloud provider. You've got the infrastructure. You've got pre-existing APIs.
Credit card providers don't give people unlimited spending, they set a hard limit based on credit risk, I don't see why cloud providers should just let the numbers roll.
There are at least six providers in Europe I can name who offer hard caps on their services. So it is possible.