The mention of "It only takes a busy month outside of 'the grid' to become inactive" isn't entirely true. The setup allows you to decide not only the length of time from 1 month to 18 months, at intervals. What data you share can be spread across contacts which you select by email and verify by phone. There isn't a default to send all data to an address, you have to select it. The individual selection of data that can be filtered has also grown since my first usage in 2014.

As for "I'd rather have the option to trust a handful of users which have all report that I'm dead before taking any actions" is a fair point regarding that Facebook requires a death certificate. Though, this is not the same as the Inactivity manager, which is what Google is offering. The purpose is to be a way to allow people to access content on your accounts after a period of time. It allows a set number of contacts to access your account in a provisioned way, through a very refined selection set that even breaks down separate google play stores (books, music, play, and movies.) I also saw selections for Mail, Photos, and 42 other different data points that can be sent to separate users.

It is a preemptive step by the account owner to verify their information will be easily retrieved by a family member or friend.

I would suggest taking a look at the Inactivity manager. It has a more robust set of features than most inactivity systems, and doesn't just apply to death. Even in death, it allows a family to collect photos, contact lists, and other mementos of a persons life.

Going "off the grid" (from your perspective) can look to others like "disappeared, and possibly dead". The photo sharing part could be useful for them to grieve, and you probably wouldn't enable this feature if you didn't consider them.

On the other hand, being kidnapped for ransom or being kidnapped by the state (i.e., arrested) is a far more serious false positive, I would think, because deleting your digital data would probably make recovering a whole lot harder.