After Andy Yen’s endorsement of the orange utan, I would seriously reconsider using any Proton product.

Yen tried to backpedal meekly several times since then, to get out of the pickle he got himself into with his definitely-not-impressed customers, but it’s a bit late for that: either he’s pro-Trump or he’s naive. Either way, he makes Proton sketchy.

Do you have any recommendations for someone who just uses them for email?

I’ve been using Tuta for more than 8 years now and had one serious issue with their service during this time (longer outage, pretty early on). Other than that I have nothing but positive experience with them.
They’re also based in Germany if that makes any difference.

I was debating between proton and tuta, but I was able to get first.last@tuta so I’m happy that worked out now.