I think if I'm gonna pay for using email, I'll just try to get any cheap VPS/domain and try to run my own email. It'll be more expensive for sure, but at least it will be my own thing I'm paying for.
I share your sentiment, but I opted for Fastmail because the effort wasn't worth the savings. YMMV, obviously.
The big email providers have basically built a walled garden around email by blocking anyone outside the garden as spam. They have no incentive to open the system to people who run their own email.