Yes, you can look at the Y-axis. But if you think that just by having the Y-axis values available removes all misleading, then no suppression of zero is ever misleading. For instance, by your logic the OP's first graph is not misleading as the values are there.

Regarding the Fed graph, the thing that you named as anomaly is amplified when you suppress the zero. When you don't the effect of the stimulus is put more context of how much effect it actually had on people's disposable income.