Q: rigidity of the AppleID system

You wouldn't complain about it if you were on the other side of things and someone was trying to gain access to your account.

So far as I'm aware your gmail account will still exist, sign back in and pick up all your rescue mails.

I do not get it, Winston.

How is security affected if I only use iCloud email addresses?

It isn't but that's because Apple won't do what you seemingly would have them do.

If you don't provide a rescue mail, expect things like this to happen.

To be honest I'm not 100% sure what your problem is if you have an iCloud address as an alternate address you can sign in with that.

I ma confused. Do you have 2 Apple IDs then? The iCloud one and an older Gmail one?

Or does "Over time, my icloud email address has become my Primary Email address and I deleted the original gmail address." mean you changed the email associated with that Apple ID and have only one?

I even set the Primary Email address for my Apple account to be the @icloud.com email address.

If I understand you correctly I believe you are mistaken. Once the primary address has been set to a non-iCloud address it can't be changed to an iCloud address. A non-iCloud address can be replaced by another non-cloud address but the iCloud address will always remain an alternate or associated address.

When I logged into my Apple account it felt odd to see the gmail address still there so I tried to change it. I wanted to set it to the @icloud.com email address which I actually use but I could not.

Yes, that would be correct, as I've just explained you can't swap primary and alternate addresses.

This is the inflexibility I am complaining about. My Apple ID now represents a list of meaningless characters which includes the @ symbol.

It's just your ID, you don't need to use it as an address, you don't even need to use it to sign in to iCloud as you can use your iCloud address, but you really need to update it to an address you do use, if Apple lock your account, they won't be able to get hold of you.

You don'y have a real problem, there is nothing but your inflexibility stopping you using your account like everyone else.

Sort of.

When you sign in to appleid.apple.com and attempt to remove the gmail address, do you get an error message?

What email address is shown at the top as your Apple ID?

When you hit the little ? mark next to your icloud address, do you see this message?

This is an alias of your Apple ID email address?

I assume you are trying to show me something, you'll need to say what.

I think this was for me.

Can you sign in with either of these addresses? The Gmail and the iCloud? What about the other iCloud addresses I see? The @me.com? I see 4 Apple addresses there.

If so, I fail to see your issue?

If not, what happens when you try?

Yes, over the years Apple's nomenclature regarding rescue addresses, primary addresses and the like has changed, I apologise for using out of date detail. The position remains though, that your ID is a non iCloud address and will always be so.

I have one account (my main one) where the ID is a non iCloud address and 3 accounts where the ID is an iCloud address. You get to choose when they are set up which way round you want them, after that you can't swap them round. As I say it won't materially affect how your account functions, it isn't an issue.

Then I am back to not seeing the issue really.

If there is no downside to the address being there, just move on. You are the only one that can see that address being connected to your account. I am sure Google does not delete email addresses just as Apple does not. Did you actually delete the Gmail account or just stop using it?

At some point, your own actions caused this email address to be rendered both useless and not removable.

I would add a rescue mail asap, as that gives you more control over your security questions if you ever have issues with them.