At first, I was scratching my head about this but I can't say I disagree. The fact is, I've been locked out of my gmail account. I've had it for over a decade had an incident several years ago after a friend died. I wasn't thinking clearly and repeatedly tried to log in with what I knew the password to be. I wound up locked out for something like 6 months. Google refused to help.

Buying your own domain gives you freedom and a more professional appearance. Yes, you have a bit of monthly cost, but you also have something you own thats permanent. I finally did it with my cubertnine.com domain.