[natecruft]

No.

USPS is technically incompetent. Like, wow. They're remarkably good at keeping decades-old trucks running and at deciphering handwritten, mis-addressed labels, but that's because they've kept people with those skills on staff ... and nearly nobody else.

USPS is already becoming an advertising company. "Marketing mail" is over 20% of revenue (FY 2022), but that doesn't include targeted (first class) ads nor resale (eg periodicals). And with the consistent push to "run it like a private business" (despite having both products and services effectively set by law), I can't see why they wouldn't scrape their email to generate revenue.

There are many options between the extremes of ad-supported and self-hosting. The private sector fills that need, so the government need not step in.