I wasn't even commenting regarding the stuck number, which is clearly an issue. I was arguing that this: "the vast majority of messaging I’ve done in the past 3 years are group messages with pictures of our children."

It just screams data loss to ruin your day. I was (kinda) hoping OP would see that and maybe rethink his storage plans, because otherwise he'll be posting "wahh my photos weren't backed up" soon enough.