I was told last night during an express lane chat with Apple, that I can use my expired @me.com email address to register on icloud, but I can never receive email at that address again. That seems bizarre. I don't understand why you would make all those addresses inactive. He basically told me to sign up on icloud using the Apple ID that I make purchases with and then set up a new @me.com email address. I tried to get him to explain the rationale behind that policy, and he simply said that is how it is working, do I need anything else...
Lame