If this has happened (and I can think of a few other ways for this to all go wrong that involve less carelessness on the part of the account holder) it’s quite substantially more serious than having to pay to fix a car.

There are very real consequences to not having access to an e-mail account that reach far beyond the hassle of creating a new one. They reach far beyond even losing your current emails.

Google (and others) slick account creation funnels belie the seriousness of what you’re doing and the devastating consequences if anything goes wrong.

Regulation is needed urgently, but will only happen when enough famous-but-not-famous-enough-to-get-special-treatment people complain.