In a sense, yes. I currently have a Moto G 1st generation that I acquired approximately 4 years back. I intended to keep it for at least a year or 2 more, but through the steady accumulation of such 100 mb losses, I have ~ 500 mb storage left on an 8 gb phone.

Now, with a reasonable OS that should be enough. However, Android insists that it does not have enough storage for app updates, and keeps bugging me with a notification for this. I fail to understand how this is possible given that the app size itself is less than a 100 mb in many cases. Almost every week I am forced to clear the cache in order to perform updates. I believe this has something to do with the swap file - but am not sure.

As a consumer, I feel artificially pushed onto a useless upgrade train. The only reason I am merely annoyed and not infuriated is because I have finally found a legitimate reason (for my needs) to upgrade - a better camera.