I couldn't agree more. Email is essentially the skeleton key to all your other accounts thanks to email reset, even if you use your own domain and don't risk the virtual armageddon of losing both all your mail and your address forever you still risk losing all your mail. Even worse, if your account is hacked you have no effective recourse whatsoever and someone will have access to all your accounts, contacts and email history. I pay for Rackspace mail because when I have a problem, I can call a real phone number and talk to a real human whose interests (company continuing to be paid) are aligned to mine (having a working service).