Hi Jack,
Email is corrupt.  You don't own the domain name so governments can take it from you.  There's a couple of free ones, such as Protonmail and Tutanota, but they can see all activity and can report on it.  The best choice is to host it on a VPS yourself with FOSS software.  If you're interested, we do setups for you under $100.
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/email/ 

 My concern; won't my email address get filtered out as spam if it isn't routed by the big providers? 

 If the DNS is done correctly it won't be.  But you're right that it requires effort and preparation to avoid spam. 

 Your server admin shoul configure at least SPF for your domain.