It sounds like Google will simply be converting your account to the kind that anyone can create at the first result that comes up when you google "create google

It sounds like Google will simply be converting your account to the kind that anyone can create at the first result that comes up when you google "create google account without gmail." This is fine. It's a full Google account like any other. Calendars are very easy to migrate from one account to another (or even to other services). You can download one ics file that describes your whole calendar and import that file to a consumer Google Calendar account. That would probably be the least disruptive path for you. You could import that same file at least to Apple's free iCloud, though I imagine it would be more disruptive because that service is different in many ways. Now as for those who want gmail but can't afford the $6, I think it's as simple as you'd need to add Gmail to that "non-gmail" account, which would restore your access to the consumer version of Gmail. Hosting your domain's email does usually need to be done for money now, but with the money one has saved for the last 17 years or so, you should be able to do this for $30 a year or something - and simply configure consumer Gmail to pull messages in via POP from your "personal domain" email account, so that you get the Gmail UI and the pretty generous storage space. I know it's possible to configure gmail to send "From" the other address too, but it does so in a pretty conservative way that some clients show as "Bob Smith on behalf of Bob Smith" and both addresses are visible in the headers.