Take regular backups has always been good advice, that doesn't go away just because a company handles your email for you. Always take archives from cloud services just like you backup HDDs, use a custom domain to forward inbound email traffic and you'll be 100% protected.
You chose the worst example of Google being able to ruin somebody's life when if they really wanted to be evil, they'd have a monumental amount of data for blackmail, the ability to silence you online, etc..
You chose the worst example of Google being able to ruin somebody's life when if they really wanted to be evil, they'd have a monumental amount of data for blackmail, the ability to silence you online, etc..