I had a Google GSuite account from back when they advertised it as a free for life solution for families who wanted to use their own domain. They stopped offering this a long time ago, but kept us around. A few years ago, they tried to end it, but walked that back after facing resistance. We were among the earliest adopters and many of us shilled pretty hard for gmail over the years. Not only would they have gone back on their word, but my app and media purchases would be tied to a crippled no-email account (identity only) because they didn't have a migration path to normal gmail. That means multiple logins. Also, the gsuite inbox doesn't have the inline ads or anything while the regular one does. I've been working to move away from google because I imagine they'll try to end this again later, but also just because we understand better who google really is.

The site the greedy little pigboy runs was instrumental to the resistance but since it's enshittified, we may not be able to resist again. Its fine to say something is for a lifetime, but you have to honor that or you've been dishonest and no one can trusts thing you say.

The only reason I still have google around is android. When we finally get a linux daily driver phone that meets my minimum needs, I'm migrating the remainder of my stuff. I'll happily give up some functionality to do it. I just hope they can keep their free for life promise until then.