This is exactly how I feel. I'm not against paying for hosted email, but that's not what they're trying to charge us for. They're trying to charge for hosted email + a million other 'Workspace' features we don't want or need.

If Google introduced a "Legacy GSuite Mail' plan at say $20/yr to retain all existing mail functionality and accounts, and disabled every other Workspace feature, I'd gladly pay for that.

Much the same as others' experience here, I have a legacy account that has been used for nothing other than email on a custom domain, and in recent years with only one user account.

GSuite hosts my primary email address for many years and I feel like I'm being extorted to keep it. What next? Will they some day be telling regular GMail users that their accounts will be deleted unless they pay for 'GMail+'?

I feel like Eleanor in "The Good Place". I can completely appreciate that Google doesn't have to provide indefinitely free email for my custom domain, but I also feel like the other options are completely unfair. Google only seem interested in offering business plans. I'm an individual, not a business. I'm not a non-profit organisation, but I'm an individual who is not using my account for profit. There needs to be a 'Medium Place' - or in this case some way of keeping hosted email with a custom domain.

I'm not against paying something, but the long term price they're seeking to extort from me is about four times as much as would be fair and reasonable for email hosting. I'd be happy with all of the non-mail services stripped out - call it a 'Legacy Mail Plan' or something. Moreover, I'd even be happy to pay for it, if it were say $15/$20 a year. I don't need a million extra services and features for my non-existent business.