EA will recommend going to support, however I've seen that work for exactly zero people on this forum in our specific situation.
Thankfully, there is another way... which is not being pushed by EA community managers for some reason despite it having a very, very high success rate.
The SalarymanDaishi Method:
If you have a deactivated EA account tied to your XBL/PSN profile and that EA account is associated with an email account that no longer exists, contacting EA's DPO should help you out. Should work just the same if you have forgotten your expired EA account but can still prove your XBL/PSN profile. The only difference is whether your old EA account can be fully recovered or merely unlinked from your XBL/PSN profile.
Please remit all kudos and other fake internet points to @SalarymanDaishi
This worked for me, hope it works for you too.
