iCloud storage is full of lies

I've been using iCloud since 2008, back when it was @me.com

Recently I started getting warnings that my storage was full, I only use iCloud for email not files/photos. My inbox had 50,000 emails. I deleted 10,000 emails. A reasonable assumption is that would clear up ~1GB. My storage went from 5.1GB to 5GB... and within days the warnings came back. This is clearly faked to force users to pay for more storage.

Anyhow I've deleted another 15,000 emails today and we'll see what nonsense happens next. I may have to delete the past 17 years of emails just so Apple stops chasing me.