@evan I think there are also a lot of idle gmail accounts or ones that are used solely has signup emails. I know mine I used only for the latter when I set it up and now don’t use it at all. It’s just part of my Google account that I need to for the calendars (sharing) and a some Google docs stuff for gaming.

For actual email I have a work account and a personal one. The personal one I pay a host for IMAP at my own domain. I’ve had it for over 20 years.