I would say that there is a difference between actively sitting on an email address and passively doing so or deactivating it. To actively sit on the email I w

I would say that there is a difference between actively sitting on an email address and passively doing so or deactivating it. To actively sit on the email I would leave in place all security alerts, 2FA, strong password, etc. I would want to be alerted of any change in circumstance that affected that email. If you deactivate, if you passively ignore communications, if you drop security... then you've taken the security of something that represented your online identity for a period of time, and essentially are being irresponsible about it. Far better to just dial usage down, whilst dialling security up, and then to let it tell you if circumstances change.