I recently got out of prison, it's not really practical to keep logging into Google from prison, especially with 2fa enabled.
I barely use my gmail that often. But I still need an email for password recovery.
I would personally not want my account recovery tied to an account I rarely use. That seems full of unnecessary risk. What if you forget that Gmail password? What if it’s compromised and you don’t even notice for almost a year? What if Google decides to change their retention for unused accounts to just 6 months?
I actually had my gmail's backup email at yahoo recycled and I had to remake that account. But genrally I consider these email accounts as my master key to all my other accounts. It has a master password that I am certain I could not lose except simultaneous major head trama and destruction of all my belongings.
If that email was lost, yeah I could be screwed out of other accounts. But no security system is perfect.