E-mail as online identity is both convenient and a huge source of risk (if Google's automated system goes wrong).

I wonder if Google could offer real customer support. I know offering support goes against everything Google stands for, but I'm sure many people would be willing to pay non-trivial amounts of money to get actual support from Google.

So if you unfortunately get locked out of your google account, you could pay for support that can actually resolve your issue.

(I realize paying to fix your problem may rub some people the wrong way. However, I would rather pay for a support ticket than be locked out of my account forever.)