I think a lot of Mutt users do what you are describing. I use mbsync to synchronize my mail over IMAP with my remote mailserver. I use mu to index it for searc

I think a lot of Mutt users do what you are describing. I use mbsync to synchronize my mail over IMAP with my remote mailserver. I use mu to index it for search. I use msmtp to send mail. And I use mutt to read and write mail.