I pulled some data off some old Samsung 1TB SSDs that werent powered for 3-4 years without an issue either. I guess they were SLC based on what others are saying.

I guess it’s a your mileage may vary situation depending on the exact drive you purchase and probably other factors too.

It could be reasonably innocent. Eg. A student doing a study Lemmy and wants to see where the user base is roughly located. Since Lemmy has many privacy focused people on the platform, I doubt they would get many responses on a survey.