I don't get people using services for data removal services. I mean, I get the general idea, that is the desire to remove your data from services, that you do not use, but I've always found these companies, "selling" data removal a bit fishy. A couple of years back I actually tried DeleteMe out of curiosity, and when it asked for continuous access to my emails, that was a huge red flag, and I never looked back.
What boggles my mind even more, that these services are still being actively promoted even by tech-oriented personas. I can understand a blogger, who has little idea how privacy and security actually work doing that, especially, if they have not seen any research about efficacy of these services (although one may question the research itself, too). But for tech people to promote this almost blindly? I get the "ick".
Now, this is obviously my personal opinion, and nothing more, but if I need to pay for a service for continuous access to my data, so that they can request removal of that data from other services, that's just me selecting 1 data broker over another. Yes, their privacy policies or terms of service may even state that they are not selling the data, and it may seem like they already get profit from your direct payments, but... Even if that's true, and there is nothing shady - how long it will last, and what are the chances, that you will learn about a change in PP/ToS, that allows to start selling the data? It's a calculated risk, yes, but it's still a risk, the one you do not have much control over.
What's more, these services only "ask" other brokers to part with your data. It does not mean, that they will. In some cases they may not be able to even (due to whatever agreements or even legislations), and in some they will say, that they did, but then "increase the value" of your data, and sell it harder, now that they know, that you may have something to hide. Let alone that only known brokers will be asked, and that's at least part of the reason why continuous access to your emails is required: to monitor who sends emails to you, to determine who may have you data. To me it does not sound to be worth any money, really, although I can understand the perception of convenience, since you are not contacting anyone yourself.
I am not a security (let alone privacy) specialist, of course, but to me one's overall behavior on the web is more important. You need to be more privacy conscious either way, since we are not living in a world where "I am not doing anything illegal, so who cares?" is an excuse. Try not to share your information unless you have to, and when sharing email prefer use of aliases (like SimpleLogin, which is now integrated with Proton). If a site does not accept aliases (which, unfortunately, happens) - think at least one extra time about whether you need that site.
And yes, these services will still have your information, but it's not about not letting anyone have it, but about controlling who has what. That's another reason to have a password manager, so that you know most if not all services, where you shared your data. I bid farewell to Microsoft, so I have to move away from Outlook (especially since it sucks), so I am now going through everything that I have in ProtonPass, updating my emails to aliases there (and also tracking which sites have my phone, as well). And asking for removal of my account, where possible. It's a huge pain to go through ~500 websites, and it's still does not account for some old sites, which I stopped using ages ago, but still. This way I have the control.
That said, I can imagine a situation where a data removal service may be useful: when it's one-time. Or at least for limited time. Let's say you became more privacy conscious, and started using Proton or something similar (there are alternatives, after all, but not as a "privacy suite"), so your habits going forward will be good, but you want to do something with your past data. Using a data removal service at this point for a one-time clean-up is a possible solution, unless you want to go through all your websites manually, like me.
In this case, though, my recommendation would be to find a service that collects your information once, and then communicates with all their known brokers to remove the data, and that's it. Avoid providing access to your emails as much as possible and do that only for emails, that you are abandoning, meaning that they are no longer used for anything personal. And even then, provide access only for a limited amount of time. Is there a service like that? No idea. And if there is one, you can't really know if it would be effective, as mentioned above.
So, in summary, don't run with your money to data removal services. First build your privacy-minded habits, and then maybe use one of those as a one-time exercise. But good habits are mandatory either way, because without them it does not matter if data is being removed: brokers will just get it again after some time.
