It’s not that bad, but it does require some effort. I self-host. I spend far more time using and enjoying email than I do maintaining the infrastructure.

However you do have to live with the occasional blacklist when you host on a VPS like I do. Some idiot in your IP range may get blacklisted for spam and then you get caught in it. It’s generally temporary.

And there are some corporate policies that will flat out reject emails from you which is fun.

I’ve probably spent less than 10 hours over the last 5 or 6 years on maintenance.