Google marketed Google Workspace (called “Google Apps” at the time) as a solution for individuals and families with custom domain. People still have these accounts and there is no way to migrate (e.g. purchases on Google Play, reviews on Google Maps, notes in Google Keep, etc.).

Not a work workspace but our family workspace, so very unreasonable. They forced us all to migrate to that...

For many years Google Home with all the Nest speakers and displays have worked fine. But you are not allowed to use the nest cameras, thermostats, doorbells, etc with workspace accounts. Hence I regret buying those.

And now I can't upgrade my storage or share my YouTubeTV account from my old family Workspace account. And migrating off is basically impossible, it's so frustrating.

For Nest Protect (the smoke alarm), if you try logging in with a workspace account it just won't let you. Had to resurrect a very old, unused Gmail account just for that.

I can confirm - it’s both utterly insane, and true. A number of the individual problems have been fixed over the years, but then new ones pop up due to rushed backend integrations.

Microsoft has a similar issue with their ‘personal’ vs ‘work’ logins.

God help you if you try to use the store to buy some things on a work account, or login to some services using a work account.

You will regret it.

It is the former.

I have a workspace account that is my main email and such. With the Pixel 2 watch I had to use a @gmail.com account in order to use it. Not a huge deal, but annoying for sure.

Would be the same issue for someone who doesn't have an @gmail.com account at all. They would have to create one in order to use the Pixel 2 watch.

FWIW the non-workspace Google account doesn't actually have to be @gmail.com - you can bring your own email when setting one up.