I also have an old account that despite knowing the correct password AND having access to the recovery email for that account, Google refuses to let me log in and there's no recourse. It's frustrating to say the least.

I've been through the process of recovering an old account and I can share some tips, feel free to email me if you'd like (address in my profile)

Please consider doing a write up on how you resolved this? There must be thousands of people impacted by this.

I've also had this situation when relocating countries. I had to abandon a 15 year old account (for which I also had a valid working recovery email) with a lot of issues recovering online banking etc. (Had to physically travel to another country to restore multiple services associated with the account).

I'm with fastmail now. I will never again depend on a mail service that I am not paying for.

You need to own the domain in your email adress, then the email provider does not matter that much.

How did you regain access in the end? That's the only worry I have with relying on Google services so much...

I never regained access to it. It's just an old account that I only used for a brief period of time so I don't think there's anything valuable in there, but it still sucks nonetheless.

I think most users lack understanding to make an informed decision about where they want to be on that curve.

Absolutely. Additionally, when The Verge runs an article about how “Google doesn’t do anything to protect your account even though it’s the center of your digital existence”, with the story of a user who failed to enable 2FA and had their entire life upended, the retort that “users should be able to decide for themselves where they want to be on the convenience / security curve doesn’t play.

This isn't about articles by a site 95% of the population has never heard of and it sure isn't about security if SMS is considered acceptable for the second factor.

Cellular providers have laughable security when it comes to account access and changes. The easiest way to get to someone's money and digital life is to figure out their cell phone company, and then convince them to send you a new SIM card for their account. Presto, instant to their bank account and now their google account.

This is about google wanting to tie more identifying information to a google account, and (by way of making all but "install our app" incredibly annoying) force iOS users to have a Google app on their phone so they know what IP address to associate with you at all times.

I was in the process of stripping Google out of my life and this looks like excellent motivation to speed that along.