Excepting loved ones, there is not much of a choice is there?
If you help set them up in a way that covers all the basics (personal domain, mail hosted at one of the current batch of paid, reliable parties like fastmail.com), then whenever something goes wrong, or whenever the friction to do something (anything!) is too high, it's not only your fault, but they'll lose trust in anything that doesn't look like a megacorp.
The other alternative is to just point them to Apple/Microsoft/Google where everything just works¹, and when things go tits-up (which, statistically speaking, only happens to a small percentage of people) they'll just blame that faceless megacorp, knowing full well that real choice is limited to those with technical know-how (or direct access to them).
I dislike the status quo, but aside from making sure I and my family aren't stuck like this, I don't see much leeway to change it.
1: It doesn't. But it will feel like it does, which is all that matters, and when it doesn't work, they'll just blame themselves.
Your email is your most prized possession. It is more important than your credit card number. At least you can call your bank if someone steals it. Also, _ALWAYS_ use your own custom domain for emails. Do not host it @someone-else.com
Stop using a free service from a terrible company that can lock you out at any time and, for Heaven's sake, stop recommending it to non-technical people!