The problem is it's not actually a problem unless you consciously remind yourself it is. Put bluntly, me using gmail has 0 negative impact on my everyday life.

What does have negative impact on my life is

1) paying for stuff (always, no matter how wealthy you are) 2) specially when it is less convenient 3) and has worse user experience (hard to beat gmail here) 4) while also having to invest time in educating yourself about alternatives and setting it up 5) and actually migrating to it, spreading the new email address, transferring data, learning all the ins and outs of the webmailer (if you use it)

Solve for some of these, do it really well and you have built something that people will be happy to use.

We have a practical demonstration that email hosting for $50/year per person is "too expensive" for people who make 6 figure salaries per year while working in tech and needing email. There's no real market here.

ProtonMail and FastMail and other paid for competitors are picking up the long tail.

> 1) paying for stuff (always, no matter how wealthy you are)

and until this changes as the mindset one can be assured that he or she would be monetized via selling and influencing his or hers behavior information. After all, someone needs to make money to pay the six figure salaries to people who keep Gmail running and we are unwilling to be charged for it.

For the whole domain it would basically amount to a new iPhone every year. A pittance, I agree, you make a valid point.