I’ve done this recently for similar reasons. It’s easy to set up and seems to work well so far. DKIM signing of emails doesn’t work yet when sending emails from the Apple Mail apps. But it does work in Thunderbird.
Paying less than £1 a month and can share with family members too. Plus the other stuff like Private Relay on iCloud+ which are cool extras.
Hawthorn Effect is right although it is disputed [1]. Interestingly, the interpretation that I remember is that productivity increased because the subjects were part of an experiment and being observed.