I think the whole crux of the issue is that any one Googler wouldn't have enough oversight to answer.

Google is too complex of an organization, and the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. So issues become lost between CS, security, and accounting.

I've seen this from the other side. I've also seen it get mitigated by giving someone (customer service) ownership of the problem, and giving them enough organizational support to twist arms in other departments as needed.

Actually, former Payments Googler here. I have a pretty good idea what could have happened. I will escalate this internally. And no, it shouldn't require a Googler to fix it; something has gone wrong.

There are way too many stories like this around. Something goes wrong a scary amount of the time, and Google just have no useful process. It desperately needs a centralised "customer service" team who have the power to override literally anyone else in Google to sort this shit out.

Any tips for the rest of us stuck in the same "account suspended without explanation" purgatory? The article describes my own experience since November (and still stuck despite many emails and calls).

Approximately 42% of the 17 million left hands are unaware that any other hands of any sort exist, much less any of the 23 million right hands.

About 71% of the 17 million right hands are not aware that any other hands exist, much less the 13 million gripping hands.

See the problem here?

No, that shouldn't not be the support path to escalation because you know someone well connected at Google and/or cause an outrage.

It's not that hard, invest in customer service, understand that not everything can be handled by an algorithm and you won't have these classes of issues. Is it expensive? Sure. At some point though you're going to need some system that allows human intervention when things have gone off the rails.