It's possible to take too much of just about anything, right? How does anybody really know until he notches the amount up and up until he finds his own limit? Doesn't excessive V-C generally just pass?

It passes but too much passing through at the same time can cause diarrhea and GI upset.
and in turn depletes the body of nutrients. knee shot.
If anybody lives on a diet of vitamin C, more than depleted "knee shot"s are going to happen.
Obviously, you had better eat well all around so that the V-C has something to work with.

Sulfur also helps metabolizing VC, so the amounts don't have to be so sky high.
I have only good experiences with S, in low doses like under 500mg/d. Higher doses, say 2g+, as you got used to it, delivers superb results for a limited amount of time (weeks to months). I'm not as anti (certainly, not all) alternative meds as you might think.
Now if sulfur would only metabolize the CV like it does the VC, we would be in great shape.