This just seems bizarre - why?

If the point is to take back email from the big guys, building on top of AWS SES seems to do exactly the opposite of that.

It's built on a completely proprietary service, which you have very little control over. If you're having issues with it, you're SOL unless you're paying for an AWS Support Plan, which is already well over the cost of Fastmail etc.

And on top of that, now you are stuck on a specific web email client as well, instead of POP, SMTP and IMAP which all of email has been running on for decades.

> why?

because I could! Isn't that the point of tech - to be able to build whatever you want, whenever you want, for any reason you want, in any form or shape you want without asking for permission?

The hexagon nut in your car is built on a technology that you don't know or own. That doesn't mean your ability of tinker with your car is subject to the whims and fancies of a nut manufacturer or the hexagon spanner manufacturer. You just trust that when you need a hexagon nut of a certain spec, you can shop for one. SES is exactly that hexagon nut to me. If you consider how easily an MX record can be created/changed, how am I losing anything by attaching myself to SES's email service?

AWS Support Plan - of all AWS technologies under the AWS sun, SES seems to be one service whose support needs are minimal and outages aren't going to end my productivity. Email is async so that delivery delays by a day or two aren't really an issue (to me). Email is federated so if AWS wants to be taken seriously is needs to interoperate with other systems a high degree of reliability.

a) The web client i am stuck on is mine. I can stay stuck on it or enhance it or shut it down or let it lie for long stretches of time.

b) What S3 provides is even more basic than POP/IMAP/SMTP - it gives you the literal email files which are the bedrock of email to do as you please. I like my chances of building something amazing with the raw data rather than having to have my emails intermediated by a GMail or a FastMail.

> because I could! Isn't that the point of tech - to be able to build whatever you want, whenever you want, for any reason you want, in any form or shape you want without asking for permission?

Well yes, if it makes you happy, absolutely, do it.

But another reason we are all here is to discuss the merits and problems of various technological approaches.

> The hexagon nut in your car is built on a technology that you don't know or own.

This just isn't true – the hexagon nut is completely open. I can go look up the length, shaft diameter, thread pitch, etc. Countless different manufacturers make one to the exact size. I could even make one myself with a lathe if I were so inclined.

SES is proprietary. I could not replace SES with something else.

> If you consider how easily an MX record can be created/changed, how am I losing anything by attaching myself to SES's email service?

Because if you wanted to move away from SES, you would have to completely rebuild how your client receives, stores, and sends email.

If you build your client on POP/IMAP/SMTP, then you can just change your MX settings, and your POP/IMAP/SMTP settings, and you can move all of your email to AWS, or Fastmail, or Gmail, or your own machine, in the time it takes DNS to propagate.