The point here is valid: a “free email address for life” is equivalent to a statement like “You can sleep on my couch as long as you need to”. It’s true until i

The point here is valid: a “free email address for life” is equivalent to a statement like “You can sleep on my couch as long as you need to”. It’s true until it isn’t. Unlike crashing on someone’s couch, for an actually very insignificant amount (and a nonzero quantity of technical skill), you can own actually own the domain and the email server and not depend on the charity of another, and not be even possibly inconvenienced someday by the service ending when someone turns out the lights on their way out. The cost of maintaining such a service is also minimal, but nonzero and can be an intimidating feat to attempt. The alpha nerds will beat their chest and state that they are so technically inclined that this approaches zero for them.