So I checked with Google One support, here is the answer from them: (and they were fine with me quoting them in a public forum) Q: if I have an email account X

So I checked with Google One support, here is the answer from them: (and they were fine with me quoting them in a public forum) Q: if I have an email account X and it auto-forwards email to an email account Y , will X be considered as an active account A: “The short answer will be NO. Google considers an account active if there is a recent login to the account.”