[josteink]

> With the additional caveat that the domain will be available for renting by anybody else once you stop paying

Not with the “additional” caveat. That’s the only caveat, and it’s a simple, understandable and known risk.

Using gmail.com or whatever puts you in a situation where the risks are numerous and unknown, and as a non-paying freeloader you get nothing to say in how access to your digital identity is managed.

If you care about your digital identity, there’s literally only one obvious answer.

[remram]

People have had their GoDaddy/NameCheap/... account social-engineered away from them too. That might be easier to fix than your Gmail (because you're a paying customer), but if your npm is already gone, having NameCheap apologize doesn't help much.