I also have to say that it appears that this host has no clue. It's either that or they seems to lazy to follow proper procedure.

Now, with that said, do keep in mind that the client does have some responsibility here. All clients should ALWAYS do their own backups as well. Anything can happen, with the same result as radiofreegeorgy experienced, and it is just as much the client's responsibility to perform routine backups as it is the host's.

It is simply part of a running a website, that you care about.

I find that the host was wrong here, but I can't put all the blame on the host.