Even having done professional mail hosting for years at one point in my sysadmin career, I still think paid email hosting is worth it even for those with the skills to stand it up themselves, at least for any inbox that might see actual important communication.
The reliable infrastructure, and the reputation management demands on a self-hosters time are a tough sell, when the cost to make it someone else’s problem is comparatively low. :D
You’ve expressed really well here why nothing gets under my skin quite like someone parroting off AI responses as a meat-proxy for some LLM. It’s like watching someone voluntarily give up their autonomy, or even just abdicating their birthright of consciousness.