> One could create entirely separate accounts but it's high friction and IIRC the

> same phone number (now a requirement) can only be used for 2-3 accounts.

I've wondered about this. Every Android/ChromeOS device I've ever bought, I had a new Google account created for it (during setup, instead of using an existing account), and only a few actually had phone numbers (I don't generally use smartphones for telephony). Is "Google account" synonymous with "GMail account" these days?

I've had this idea for an experiment where I get such a device (without a simcard), and see how many times I can iterate the Initialize-Device-With-New-Google-Acct-PowerWash-Repeat cycle, and how many Gmail accounts I would have as a result.