Why setting up Email Servers / Providers have to be this hard?

If you have ever tried hosting your own email server or SMTP service to support your product, you know what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about Gmail, protonmail etc but having your own email service on top of your custom domains using which you can send transactional emails such as email verification during on-boarding, password reset emails or non-transactional emails like newsletter.

The cloud providers instantly blacklists you if you try hosting ones. Some even blocks SMTP ports by default for ex: Akamai/Linode and you’ve to open a ticket to get them open along with providing a proper reason.

If you use any 3rd-party services like Mailgun or zoho you need to complete a KYC, provide reasons on how you intend on using it.

I mean I get it they’re trying to reduce spam but why can’t they just act as platforms and stop worrying about how anyone’s using their offerings? Isn’t it gate-keeping ? If I’m paying I should be allowed to use it however I want and not have to go thru this process which takes away my development hours?

What am I Missing?