I ran a personal email server for years and I currently have a server I can run things on, so I can set up a passable system myself for next to nothing. However, it won't be as good as gmail for reliability, spam, speed of searching, integration with my android phone, etc.

The point isn't that a good email service has extremely high utility to me, it's that I have a large number of options with a cost of nearly free. That's why I wouldn't be prepared to pay a lot for it.

Not to mention the fact that I hate recurring costs.