You don't need to use iCloud mail to get Apple's "intended" experience. You can use any email that follows the IMAP standard. Fastmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. Gma

You don't need to use iCloud mail to get Apple's "intended" experience. You can use any email that follows the IMAP standard. Fastmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. Gmail has a custom, non-standard IMAP implementation.