I think if I'm gonna pay for using email, I'll just try to get any cheap VPS/domain and try to run my own email. It'll be more expensive for sure, but at least it will be my own thing I'm paying for.
Just depends whether or not the effort it takes to find a VPS company whose IPs aren't blocked by major email providers, and then ensuring that your emails continuously make it through to their destinations, is worth the cost savings.
I share your sentiment, but I opted for Fastmail because the effort wasn't worth the savings. YMMV, obviously.
The problem with running your own email is getting past the spam filters.
The big email providers have basically built a walled garden around email by blocking anyone outside the garden as spam. They have no incentive to open the system to people who run their own email.
I share your sentiment, but I opted for Fastmail because the effort wasn't worth the savings. YMMV, obviously.