I’m in the same boat. I’ll be moving from the US to the UK shortly, and my options for what to do to keep my US number (and keep it functional while I’m in the UK) are pretty limited outside of google voice. Especially since, as you noted, Twilio isn’t really priced for personal use.

GV isn’t bad, it’s just my absolute last resort given how capricious Google seems to be with these non-core services.