With your own Domain Name you can have any email address you want. I have about 15 right now on my domain name. Also any other emails sent to my domain will show up in a default account. Nice for seeing who’s selling my address.
Domain Names are about $15/yr and you can get basic hosting for $30+/yr.
Currently I’m with WebHostingPad and I see they’re offering a $3/month lifetime “mini” hosting and unlimited email addresses.
I’m using ThunderBird, mostly POP3.
I am glad you are happy with what you are doing.
For myself and my needs I am not convinced of any benefit to me to having my own domain. Maybe I am missing out on something and I just don’t know it. We’ll see. And thanks.