I’m pretty sure I have read that after you transition your Apple ID to an iCloud login that you are stuck with that.

I have been considering moving as well because Gmail doesn’t work well with Apples mail app, but I’m not sure I want my Apple ID permanently stuck to iCloud.

This does not work consistently for me, I get captchas regularly.

I’ve paid for YouTube for years and the price has definitely gotten out of hand, I used a VPN to sign up for it in Turkey a few months ago and it’s like 10% of what I was previously paying, only a couple dollars a month.