it's pointless to self-host mail (except for backups maybe) because 99% of your normal-life recipients are likely to be on Google and the content of your emails will be ingested by the big brother anyway.
My reason for self hosting is not to keep my data away from BigTech. That’s a fight nobody can win anymore.
The reason I do it is that E-mail is often the only identity on other services I use (it’s often the only way to reset your passwords), and I feel it is too risky to be dependent on a megacorp for my identity, a megacorp who may decide out of the blue to suspend my account for no reason.
I’m dependent on my VPS provider, but I have backups and can take my Debian config with me to a different one. Or bare metal if I have to.
I’m dependent on my DNS registrar and haven’t figured out a good way to mitigate that risk.
I agree about identity, but this can also be accomplished by "owning" your domain and using a mail provider that allow you to use it. Even Apple does nowadays.
