Outbound mail gets harder every year as opaque reputation systems flag mailer daemons as false spam positives.

Inbound mail on the other hand — notably, the OG form of Internet identification — is very achievable for a stick in the mud to set up.

Losing one’s Gmail account would likely have very little impact on one’s ability to send mail, but no longer being able to receive mail at a given address can be devastating. Set up your own domain!