Proton's services function well enough; it was essentially designed as an alternative to Google Apps, though it remains another "walled garden". The real problem lies in the communities built around Proton, and even more so with the later entrant Tuta. These communities attract large numbers of anti-bigtech giant activists and extreme privacy enthusiasts. Proton and Tuta leverage these aspects for marketing and attention, while these communities actively spread anxiety to other areas. In contrast, Apple offers similar services without needing such flashy marketing tactics or viral communities to capture this niche market. Proton and Tuta also exaggerate the benefits of "encryption" while selectively ignoring vendor lock-in issues and the question of "where keys reside". Most of the time, they simply create a trust black box for users, much like Apple does. They further choose to open-source their client applications to earn the "open-source trust" label, continuing to leverage this extensively in their marketing.

Ultimately, my view is this: encrypted email is a lie, though this reflects inherent limitations of email itself. To deliver encrypted email, Proton and Tuta essentially reinvented a proprietary communication protocol that only functions within their own servers, creating yet another black box.