Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually don't know anyone that uses the archive function. My "inbox zero" equivalent is to have no unread e-mails as I often leave e-mails that I need to respond to or handle as unread.
Gmail's Archive function is (or at least was, 8 years ago) its best feature! If you're not using it, you're Doing It Wrong. If you think of your inbox as a to-do list (where the most basic task is "read this"), then the most common pattern ITDBG (In The Days Before Gmail) for managing your to-do was using read/unread as your done/todo flags. This was annoying; when reading an email that can't be actioned right away y…
I filter mail aggressively. My inbox currently sits just below 2000 messages. "All" folder has nearly 25,000 messages. Given a 1-week average, I seem to get about 200 emails/day.
Most of those are machine-generated notifications or various list / subscribed mails. Subscriptions are generally ingnorable, though I'll be interested in stuff that pertains to my own posts, and occasionally search archives for issues related to things I've encountered (dual curse of GMail: it makes handling mail a bit awkward, but its search utilities are pretty good).
Those filter rules are also a bit funky. Where procmail gives great power (and requires great responsibility), GMail's filter syntax is more limited, doesn't allow running arbitrary commands (duh), and leaves me a bit confused on the order of application of filters (though it seems better than MS Outlook, which was completely broken in this regard).
My email is not just a to-do list.
It is in part a to-do list.
It's a reminder pile.
It's a knowledgebase.
It's a news stream.
It's a "oh, X happened, let's see if there's any other notice of it elsewhere in mail".
Not a one-size-fits-all tool.
My preferred interface