Is a grid just short volatility? Trying to understand what I'm actually holding

Someone said above that a grid is a short volatility position with a friendly interface, and I've been thinking about it since. As far as I can follow: I earn a little each time price oscillates, and I lose a lot if it moves far in one direction and stays there. Small frequent gains, rare large loss. That does sound like selling insurance. If that's right, then two things follow that I hadn't considered. First, my returns should look great right up until they don't, which means a good backtest is almost meaningless unless it contains a large one-way move. Second, I should be sizing it the way you'd size a short-volatility position, for the bad day, not the average one. Am I understanding this correctly, or is the analogy doing more work than it should?