My 20 year old Steam login uses a defunct ISP email from the dial up days. I changed the actual email associated with it for passwords etc. but my login is still “deranger@oldisp.com”
But the point I was trying to make is email has always been free or included, in my experience. The fact Gmail was free was never the draw imo.
That’s pretty fucking funny “big brother” was associated with porn rather than privacy.