I gotta praise Google for notifying users well in advance of purging inactive accounts. In fact, it is amazing they retained abandoned accounts as long as they did, given that they provide 15 GB of cloud and mail storage for free.

Whatever unkind things Google has done, one has to appreciate the positive things.

In comparison, the email service "Web.de" deletes accounts not used for as little as half a year. And they only give 1 GB.