I thought that was the sensible solution, though -- you have your own domain names, but then use some reputable e-mail provider for the actual server.

E.g., I use mxroute, and wouldn't imagine setting up the e-mail servers myself, even though I still wind up having to muck about in the DNS records when getting things set up.

On the note of corporate addresses, I remember that I had a bigfoot.com e-mail address, that was supposed to be "permanent", and work as a forwarding thing, as I switched between various ISPs for my e-mail address.

It was significantly less permanent than having my own domains. And, with Google, we never quite know when they're get bored or run into money issues. But some of my domains? I'll probably have them as long as I'm alive, and that's probably long enough.