If you don't trust Google to store your email, I have bad news for you.
You will never escape having some of your email stored on Gmail servers. Most people you email are using a gmail address, whether direct or via forwarding.
End-to-end encryption is your only true ally. In this regard, email is hopeless. I personally feel that all these privacy mechanisms on top of email are a) hopelessly pointless and b) give people false comfort. They do more harm than good. It would be better if people saw email as a plaintext, insecure protocol and treated it that way at all times. Just imagine whatever you write in an email is the same as a message you send out to the world on Twitter. Doing it this way ensures you never send a message you will regret and will guarantee your protection rather than the security theater of privacy mechanisms layered on top of a fundamentally broken protocol.
There is nothing particularly insecure about encrypted email these days. The network stuff is all TLS protected. Pretty much the same as encrypted XMPP. There is nothing broken about SMTP.
You're absolutely right but unfortunately, my biggest use-case for email is still sending my own personal data to businesses I (more or less) have to interact with that don't offer an alternative.
Also, I'm not sure most email users know what a "plaintext, insecure protocol" is and what it would imply.
You will never escape having some of your email stored on Gmail servers. Most people you email are using a gmail address, whether direct or via forwarding.
End-to-end encryption is your only true ally. In this regard, email is hopeless. I personally feel that all these privacy mechanisms on top of email are a) hopelessly pointless and b) give people false comfort. They do more harm than good. It would be better if people saw email as a plaintext, insecure protocol and treated it that way at all times. Just imagine whatever you write in an email is the same as a message you send out to the world on Twitter. Doing it this way ensures you never send a message you will regret and will guarantee your protection rather than the security theater of privacy mechanisms layered on top of a fundamentally broken protocol.