This is important. I can't apply (not US resident), but I would think a lot about doing if I could. Is 5k worth the risk that in a year Google decides to shut down my Gmail and everything in my account with it? No.

I know it sounds as Google has me kidnapped... which may be (and it could be my fault for not migrate to a different service, but the social part of migrating, not the technical part, is what worries me)

It's absolutely insane to me that people can be scared of participating in legal processes against a megacorporation for fear that the megacorp will retaliate by holding their accounts hostage, but then not do anything to remove their reliance on those services. Start migrating your damn email! It sounds like Google has you kidnapped because they pretty much do, and you're letting them!

I get money and Google no longer tries to interact with me? Win-win.

Yeah, I would be kind of careful here if you have a Workspace domain with them (like I do).