Apple - justify deleting my data?

I pay for 2TB iCloud storage for my family. We are using 1/4 of this space.

When my husband died I obviously didn’t think to check our iCloud Ts & Cs, or to keep his phone switched on so it would keep updating his backups. I had assumed that all of the info on his phone would still be available - we have young kids and I want them to be able to see him as a real, live person - his phone was to be a part of that. 2 1/2 years later and the phone he used won’t switch on & when I go to put his data onto a different device, his backups are gone, because they are over 6 months old.

Why is this a thing? How can apple possibly justify raiding the storage space that I am paying for, that they market as being secure, to free up space I do not need, by deleting data that I do need?!? How is this acceptable? Sticking a line in a huge terms document is surely not enough to make this ethical?