We're reaching the end of an era wherein billions of dollars of investor money was shovelled into tech startups to build large user-bases, and now those companies (now monoliths) are beginning to constrict their user-bases and squeeze for every single penny they can possibly extract. Fair or not.
Now more than ever, it's important for us to step back and reconsider whether we want to be billboards for these companies anymore.
For anyone unfamiliar, some good resources to have when starting your degoogling journey are below:
Privacy Guides - A list of privacy-respecting services you can use.
Plexus - A crowdsourced information bank of service compatibility with degoogled devices.
This random PDF - A study from 2018 detailing data that Google tracks about its' users.
if you're switching then you have the privilege to start anew with something great, you should look at options like Proton or Tutanota rather than other equally exploitative megacorps like Apple :p
i think it's also important to be accepting of changing service providers because it's the right thing to do, not just because it's an improvement. i think we should be thankful that alternatives are mature enough now that we don't lose much, or anything, when we switch.