If you have a Google registered domain don’t they throw in Workspace for free? Is that a possible way to continue keeping at least a single base account alive without paying per month?
Otherwise I guess I’m going to look at using something to forward emails to my free Google account (Cloudflare now has email forwarding…)
when doing forwarding, yeah, it doesn't look like it. When I tried to add an alias on my gmail.com it asked for my SMTP account. I guess maybe I've never done that off a free gmail before (just paid / grandfathered Workspace ones!) - so it'll work well for anything inbound that's needed. But yeah, if you need outbound, still an open. Still assuming Google Domains allows you a basic Workspace account though.
Otherwise I guess I’m going to look at using something to forward emails to my free Google account (Cloudflare now has email forwarding…)