So far as I can see, this is just speculation (and propaganda!). Regarding European Digital Identity Wallet which the article says is under development, this would be an app you don’t neccessarily have to install on your phone (and it might not be possible to install if it requires some google-pay api).

It is a one person operation but it is very stable, I have not had any issues during the 4 years. I had some questions when I signed up and they were answered quickly (within few hours). The ‘Beta’ sign has been there always, in my opinion it doesn’t mean anything. The is a news page, https://news.purelymail.com/ and there are about 5 ‘items’ (mostly some disturbances) per year since 2020. There is a ‘free trial’ so you have nothing to lose :)

https://purelymail.com/ is brilliant, have been using it for 4 years and am using it with thunderbird and k9.