If Proton screws up, you just lost your email, not your entire digital life.
Ie dont be [email protected] or have anything important tied to that account but rather have a [email protected] email that you can use with any provider ... But most importantly move to a new provider in the event of problems without losing access to any of your 3rd party accounts tied to your email
Yes, I do believe that <any email provider I pay> is less likely to screw me than gmail.
The reason is that Google ties things everything together--even if you created multiple accounts. So, if some Google Play AI algorithm decides that my login is compromised, everything can get shut down. If I post something on YouTube that the Googleplex AI doesn't like, everything can get shut down.
Random email provider isn't going to suspend my email account because the YouTube AI got pissy.
Do I really believe, say, protonmail is less likely to screw me than gmail? Why?
What are the actual odds of gmail screwing me? They're huge, a few horror stories don't indicate much. And protonmail is small, the fact that I haven't heard horror stories doesn't mean much. (Not trying to pick on protonmail specifically, I think this all applies to any other provider I've seen suggested.)
Maybe the alternatives are in fact less likely to screw me due to some bullshit reason, I don't know. But I'm pretty sure with most other providers I'm more likely to get screwed for a technical reason, or because the company goes under, or because the company changes hands, or, if it's a paid service, because I fail to pay for some reason and the service doesn't degrade to free nicely.
I think switching to hotmail might make sense. They're a similar size to gmail, but I haven't heard the horror stories. And they're similar in all the other ways, unlikely to have a major technical problem, unlikely to change hands or go under, and I can't forget to pay them because it's free.
I'm just not convinced there's other better alternatives. If the stakes are too high the solution is probably just to make the stakes less high.