I’ve read so many accounts of users and whole companies being permanently shut out of their Google accounts that I couldn’t justify the risk any longer. Google genuinely does not care. The number of critical services which rely on our email address is really difficult to grasp until one goes through the exercise of converting to their own domain. Banks. Trading platforms. Phones and computers. Windows. Game consoles. Steam. Google (Maps, YouTube). Cloud storage. Social media. Business applications. Communications like WhatsApp and Teams. Thousands more forums and services you’ve signed up with over the decades. As more services utilise 2FA, all of those are at risk without access to the email account. Even if you can log in, good luck changing settings, passwords, or the email address.

Everyone should buy and use their own domain. Losing access to Gmail is catastrophic. We’re talking hundreds of hours of effort and permanently lost access to irretrievable data, services, contacts, correspondence, one’s digital identity, and even money.