For less than $30/year, you could buy your own domain and use it with any number of reliable paid email providers giving you a level of control that isn't possible with the usual suspects. You don't need a vps or have to host anything yourself if you don't want to.

I've used Purelymail for a few years and have no issues adding them to the recommendations from others here.

One thing to consider is whether you want IMAP to be able to set up your preferred clients instead of using the providers webmail/apps.