In cases where someone was able to get their Google account back only after taking their case public (ex: [1][2]) I'm still counting this as a lockout, under the assumption that if they hadn't been able to draw attention to the situation they would have been stuck. Are the Fastmail cases different, or was taking it public and getting noticed a necessary part of the resolution process?

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/22/that-time-i-got-locked-out...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2794529