Your argument falls flat when a page file can be multi-GB and automatically grow. And if your application admin was competent, memory monitoring would be part of the application monitoring stack.
An application that grows in such a way (besides having backing stores for memory-mapped files, as well) will often perform so poorly that it requires addressing (adding RAM, looking for application faults, etc).
A page file is insurance, one that can last you much longer than available system memory.
> This doesn't solve the original issue and only masks the underlying problem.
You're moving goal posts. No, a page file doesn't solve the problem of a misbehaving application, but it does solve the problem of an app crash because no more VAS allocation can be made.
You should really dive into Windows Internals. Only misinformed gamers turn off page files.
An application that grows in such a way (besides having backing stores for memory-mapped files, as well) will often perform so poorly that it requires addressing (adding RAM, looking for application faults, etc).
A page file is insurance, one that can last you much longer than available system memory.