Not a seasoned pro, just a seasoned citizen still grasping these nuances.
As a seasoned citizen, I'm not up on all the nuances of web hosting and was not aware until this renewal that my google workspace membership was required for my e-mail service associated with my domain name. I don't know if there is a way to make this clearer when signing up or if I just missed it. I think my first year of google workspace was free. Since I use MS office extensively, I don't use the other google products.