Q: Are we still not able to make an @icloud account our primary email for our Apple ID?

It appears not. See wording below 6.

Apple ID Name Change

Your @icloud.com identity is an Apple ID already. It may even be an alias for your existing Apple ID already.

Sign in to applied.apple.com using your @icloud.com ID and your current Apple ID password.

mmurphy336 wrote:

 

Are we still not able to make an @icloud account our primary email for our Apple ID?

If you create a new Apple ID when creating an iCloud account at System Preferences>iCloud you will be offered the choice to create a new @icloud.com address and make that the Apple ID used to sign into the account. However as pointed out above if you have already used an Apple ID which is a non-Apple address to create an iCloud account you can only change the ID to another non-Apple address.

It should be noted that if you do create an @icloud.com ID you need to provide a contact address which is a non-Apple address because if, for example, you forget your password, or a problem arises with the account, the reset password can only be sent to the iCloud address which you won't have access to.

But the question remains:  WHY is this the case?  What is the technical reason for this (absurd) limitation?

This is something we have no way of knowing. Apple don't reveal their source programming.

I can not begin to explain how annoying, counter-intuitive and enormously confusing it is to have to have to be stuck "...@gmail.com" as my primary apple id. Worse still, my microsoft account has ended up as my "...@me.com"just crazy