I was an early adopter of everything Google. My original Gmail address (that I still have and use on occasion) was the beta/invite only version in early 2004. I have never, Never, NEVER looked back. I have never had an email go "missing", so I guess that would tell me that if there hasn't been an issue in the last 11 years, there probably won't be. The number of outages I have experienced have probably numbered less than 10...actually probably less than that. As a matter of fact, I don't remember the last time I couldn't access Gmail.
I use just about every product they have available on a daily basis. The syncing of information is flawless on all devices and is a life saver in so many ways. I have absolutely NO desire to find a new email provider....none at all. Google is always innovating and improving, I love looking at and messing with the development they have going on and that is available in Google labs and through the beta program.
As for spam, it's minimal and it's ALWAYS sent to the spam folder. I don't think I have ever had spam make it into my primary mailbox.
Lastly, I have a personal domain (several) that I can assign any username to. I have this set up so I can add and delete usernames as needed. I don't use it a whole bunch, but it comes in handy to organize items into my different inboxes.
Oh...OK, one more thing. In all the reports I have seen about our elected leaders that have had their emails hacked, I don't think I have EVER seen one such as this:
hillary.clinton@gmail.com
And AOL?!? Really? People still use this?!? It still exists?