LaForge asks (does Harald Welte actually read recentlog?) Why do self-respecting hackers use Gmail & Co?, noting how many of his mailing list subscribers use Gmail, and making some observations about the privacy implications.
As a datapoint, I do have a Gmail account, and I try only to use that for mailing lists, although some family members seem to prefer using that account despite my protestations. I don't consider the privacy implications of my mailing list subscriptions to be particularly invasive, especially since the fact of my subscribing to several of them is public information. I have a web.de account as an emergency backup for correspondence with my hosting service, and apart from these cases, I try to use the email accounts I maintain myself for correspondence, with the considerations LaForge talks about looming large.
It occurs to me that I could try to get a friend to administer my emergency email account, but then I recall that I've had trouble with that in the past.
I should think that Joel Coel's answer to the question Using gmail as your primary mail server on Server Fault provides a common answer to LaForge's question too.