Have any of yall left gmail? Was it worth it? What pushed you out?

I have had a gmail account for about 20 years and recently came to the realization that my entire digital life is dependent upon one major lynchpin - a 20 year old google account. If google for some reason decided to ban that account... well, let's just say this realization is why I'm now looking.

After doing some digging, it seems the best practice right now is to have a primary mail account that is both a custom domain and a central depository that only receives mail and is never put on any list. The custom domain aspect is important because you can switch between any email service you chose at any time for any reason. The central depository is important because you have other email addresses feed into the system that can be deactivated or blocked. Following this methodology, it seems to be highly suggested to use an email aliasing service so you can obscure every login - making your username/email address less likely to be easily guessed or assumed. (Email aliasing at this stage appears to be having the ability to say "Texags@domain.com" and "bank1@domain.com" and "telephone@domain.com" for easy sorting and tracing). The advantages to this seem pretty strong in managing an inbox.

The major players I've seen seem to be Protonmail, Tutanota, and Skiff. Anyone have any experience with these mail platforms? Or - maybe I just need to lower my paranoia level and save my money and keep using google since they already have 20+ years of data on me.

I'll save you my usual diatribe against gmail since you are looking to move for larger reasons than why I would.

Put simply, it's a crap user experience as a straight email application.

I've been moving off google a little at a time. Deleted the Google Maps app (using Apple now) and the Gmail app (just using the iOS Mail app) and using Safari and Firefox instead of Chrome. I am looking at using my iCloud email or doing a custom domain that forwards to that. I might keep my gmail around for all the junk companies send that I don't really care about but check every now and then for sales. Move financial and other important stuff over to another using some of the + filters for organization.

Also deleted all the social media stuff off my phone but keep my account with Facebook pretty much just for Marketplace at this point.

I've been moving away from google services for a few years, it's difficult to get rid of gmail completely. I use a custom domain on protonmail. Slowly moving things away from gmail to protonmail, it just takes time. I have several email aliases, and I use the + notation to further differentiate.

Another thing to consider is using Apple Cloud+ with custom domain.

I have a proton mail account for my more sensitive emails that I don't want Google snooping (credit card bills, monthly mortgage statements, communications with my mistress, viagra orders, paternity test results, etc.). I like it. The mobile app is polished and they're slowly building alternatives to all the products in the Google suite (though you have to pay up if you want more than email)