I find Google's decision to delete old accounts annoying. According to what I have heard Google is only going to delete accounts inactive for two years without anything published to a YouTube channel. I don't know if this is true and even if it is true, it is only a matter of time until they also start deleting dead channels. Many videos will survive because OP's Google account is still used without publishing anything on YouTube. However, there isn't any other way videos won't be deleted if they also delete accounts with YouTube channels where they previously uploaded. I may delete my Google account in the future, I have no use case for it as I don't upload videos often anymore. I don't have any good alternatives if I do this. I would say my best bet is to host my own website or to use a PeerTube instance. I wonder how this will affect Gmail addresses more though. Obviously, those will be deleted after two years of inactivity if the Google account does not have a YouTube channel, possibly even if they had a channel with videos up.
I see it very likely some people will get locked out of an account, need the address years later, and be unable to access it. I avoid registrations on most sites, but sites I do use don't get registered to using Gmail for this reason. I use GuerrillaMail when possible, then CockMail or PissMail, then ProtonMail, then I give up if even Proton doesn't work. I try to avoid using email seriously in any manner unless I self-host it or it is a work email, especially Gmail. Whenever I interact with normies, it doesn't mean much because they use Gmail or Outlook regardless so my data still ends up in the botnet. Although, it at least prevents my accounts from ever getting shutdown like this. The only annoyance with self-hosted email is if you lose your domain, but this is rare unless you stop paying for it.
Google Drive is something I see being more impactful than many think about. Gmail and YouTube are obvious, but what about the people dumb enough to store their data primarily on Google Drive? Anyone who doesn't get an archive of their data before the two years are up could lose hundreds of gigabytes of data, theoretically even terabytes. They will likely remember it is there if they are paying for storage, but they may forget if they stop paying and Google keeps the data on the servers, even if you are over the 15 gigabyte free limit (under the condition you can not upload until you are under 15 gigabytes again).
In my case, I don't have much storage, but I don't have many files to begin with. I have taken interest in archival due to events over the past few years, so I am planning to purchase a few hard drives once I have the money. I see 24 terabytes on Seagate's website for as little as $300 USD. 24 terabytes for $300 is more than enough for me and I will get 2 or 3 of them once I can afford it. This will be plenty for the next few years or decades. I will likely give one of my drives to a friend, since he would benefit from this much too. It will mean Google can't decide to delete gigabytes upon gigabytes, or even terabytes upon terabytes of software, images, videos, documents, etc. It also can be accessed offline unlike Google Drive which is nice for me as I like to only connect online when I have reason to connect.
