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One of the biggest problems, I’ve found, is that if you enable mandatory hardware 2FA (U2F) on your Google account, the so-called Advanced Protection Program, you can no longer get app passwords to log in with IMAP, essential for mirroring your email somewhere else automatically.

It’s really frustrating.

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You actually can. It's possible to create app specific passwords. Well, a while ago at least.

That initially got deprecated for paid accounts. But I think they’ve since delayed the deprecation indefinitely, probably because they got strong push back.

Not if you have mandatory hardware 2fa (advanced protection program) on, no. You're probably thinking of just 2fa enabled, which still permits TOTP (and app passwords). Once you enable APP, it is U2F only, and app passwords are no longer possible.

Sure you can. Read this https://support.google.com/mail/answer/185833?hl=en

This was going to be disallowed for paid accounts. The change is on ice for now as far as I know.

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