This. You can set upload speed to zero, and download entire dataset without uploading anything. Slower but doable.

As far as I know, setting upload speed to zero disables the limit. You can set it to be very low but not zero.

That is client dependent. On rtorrent, there is a separate "off" setting for the speed throttle that means "no throttle" with the result that "zero" actually means "no uploading".

You can patch it so zero means zero.

I think it's a fair argument in the context of big corporations using the technology.