People willingly chose the free option and chose to not pay companies that would have offered support.
Anyone who's had to deal with Google support for paid business accounts will tell you that the situation is barely any different for paying customers. Things might be different for very large businesses who are spending millions per month, but that's hardly relevant to how Google might handle email customers hypothetically paying $9.95 a month for a personal mailbox.
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I do not understand why anyone defends consumer abuse by businesses. Unless they work for said businesses, or own their stock, there is absolutely nothing to gain by siding with an abusive business over an abused customer. The business isn't going to reward their supporters' loyalty by treating them better.
Collaborating with hostile entities is not a redeeming quality.
Then don’t pay google $10 a month. I don’t. I do the work of supporting businesses that I think deserve it. I know some businesses have monopolies that customers can’t fix by voting with their wallet, but email isn’t one of them.
> Collaborating with hostile entities is not a redeeming quality.
Using their free services and not voting for the right candidate in the market by paying for the service is collaborating with hostile entities (in the example of email where there is no monopoly and almost zero cost to switching).
I get support from Fastmail, and Migadu and Target and banks and plenty of other companies. I also provide support for my businesses.
Support usually sucks with monopolies, such as ISPs who know you have no alternative. But even then, I’ve always been able to get someone on the line to fix my issue.