Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've recently started to move a lot of the services I use away from Google provided services. Who'd you go with instead of Gmail for email?
I set up my own mail server. It took me a few hours with a few minor hiccups along the way, but after contacting Microsoft and AT&T to get my IP removed from their block lists and asking family and friends to mark my emails as "Not Spam", I am now in control of my email and it feels amazing. I have also taken the time to run my own calendar and contact services. For mail, I run Postfix and Dovecot over SSL and access…
Yikes.
Isn't this exactly the problem with running your own email setup? And have you not found that keeping on the white side of mail server lists is a constant and moving target?
May I ask, do you send a lot of mail and have multiple accounts? (I do, so this overhead would be impossible for me to manage personally)