I’ve had my .mac.com email address for eons. Even when it switched to me.com, way back, I was able to continue to use mac.com. And, nowadays, one can even use a .icloud.com address, as well, all for the same user email account, all depending on how you have it set up.
If you have an Apple email app, you’d have red notifications of any .mac.com messages on any of your devices, easily accessible, negating having to, separately, go to the Apple website to retrieve your mail.
Here’s more about Apple mail, should like to learn more about it: https://support.apple.com/mail
Hope this helps!
Linda