Did you successfully go from having [email protected] as the primary Google account on your phone, with the account setup under Google Workspace, to an end state where you had a "new" Google account for the exact same email address with no connection to Google Workspace.

I understand it's a given to lose the purchases. I'm semi-dreading the prospect of being presented with an error message preventing the creation of a new Google Account for an email address previously under Google Workspace. This may be irrational...but it seems like a case where Murphy's Law would rear its ugly head, and typical of the "gotchas" that these legacy accounts have had to deal with when interacting with certain Google products.

And I guess the worst-case downside is that I might need to create a new Google Account with a different email address from my primary email address just for the phone and Google apps, which is awkward but isn't the end of the world.

Provided Google doesn't disable "too much" of these accounts, they ought to act like normal "Google accounts", which don't have Google-provided email service associated (i.e. a free Google account that was created with an external email address).

You might miss out on some things like Calendar/Gmail, but a free Google account using an external email should preserve things like purchases. Failing to do that would seem likely to push them down the path of lawsuits and PR fiascos, and also embolden what's likely a disproportionately tech-savvy (and influential in making purchasing decisions) audience fitting the demographic that set up a domain for email 10+ years ago.

I went through exactly this 6 months ago and am now signed in on Android with exactly the same email address as I had on my paid workspace account

though I advise leaving it for a week or so after deleting it as it was pretty glitchy to begin with