Thanks Yorkshiregel, I had this problem as I stopped using a download email client, eg Windows Live Mail, after my big crash this last summer. My first in 20 years of using PCs. Lost a lot of important work-related emails, even though I'd archived many, I sort of got lazy since semi-retiring. But, as you say, there were thousands stored on the server and I recovered many thankfully, so it was a help in that respect.
IMHO it all went pear-shaped when they stopped using a Google platform and went to their own a couple of years ago. That's when the big problems with spam began for a lot of people per their community forum.
So as I only use their webmail now, the spam isn't as bad (they do 'seem' to have better server-side filters now... sort of) but I was missing important emails. Now I just let them be marked spam, but they come to my inbox first.
Also, back in the day, when VM was owned by Telewest, they had rubbish security and we were often blacklisted on blueyonder for being the source of spam. That's when I gave up and went to gmail.