I wasn't suggesting that you need to run your own email or web servers. It's easy (albeit costly) to pay a service to host your email (e.g. Protonmail; Rackspace; many domain registrars), and there are countless web hosting providers. However, this isn't identity (the identity is still yourdomain.net), and you don't need the hosting provider to be well-known. As I understand it, acceptance by the likes of Gmail is a case of jumping through technical compliance hoops, rather than brand stature.
I wouldn't consider DNS names as brands. Brands are names which become identifying through familiarity, whereas DNS names become identifying simply by purchase; they're more similar to land registration: you are identifiable by a street address because you own / rent / lease it, not because it is widely known.
My point is that I can buy a domain, buy some email and web hosting, then masquerade as i@myself.me, put up whatever files on my website. Nothing about this requires me to build a brand, any more than buying a house to which I can invite people requires a brand. We visit websites we have never heard of all the time.
I wouldn't consider DNS names as brands. Brands are names which become identifying through familiarity, whereas DNS names become identifying simply by purchase; they're more similar to land registration: you are identifiable by a street address because you own / rent / lease it, not because it is widely known.
My point is that I can buy a domain, buy some email and web hosting, then masquerade as i@myself.me, put up whatever files on my website. Nothing about this requires me to build a brand, any more than buying a house to which I can invite people requires a brand. We visit websites we have never heard of all the time.