I just can’t find a decent email client that looks like it’s from the last 20 years. Geary and Evolution both appear to be pretty modern but something about using Gmail with a Yubikey just doesn’t work and neither of them will connect to my account. Both on Fedora and OpenSUSE. Thunderbird works but it’s so old fashioned and Betterbird doesn’t look much better. What’s everyone else using?
Clients like Thunderbird download the mails for a local copy. That means, you can a) read and search your mails offline, b) backup all mails. That’s not all. Such a client also: c) allows a unified interface to all different mail accounts from different providers in one view, d) better integration into your system, such as tray icons for notifications.
Everyone does their thing, so not saying you are doing it wrong, just giving you reasons to use an offline mail client; as you asked why.
Those are all totally fair considerations, just not requirements in my workflow. I’m coming at it from a personal use case, where I don’t need offline access to my personal email, and I only have one email account to check (my Gmail is forwarded to my Proton mail).
My question was more to lead OP down the requirements gathering path, to evaluate their actual needs and if a client is actually required or if it’s more of a “nice to have”.
Thanks for laying out some of those advantages to a client though. Every user has their own needs and if offline access, multiple accounts, consistent UI, etc. are desired, then a client is certainly a great option.