Is it actually realistic to own an EV long-term without a home charger?

It can be done but it is a pain. You can't just wing it the way you can with gas. You end up planning your week around where and when you can charge, and if your one reliable station is broken or full you're stuck rearranging things. Most people I know who started out public only either put in at least a 120V outlet or got rid of the car

I have unlimited free Supercharging on my 2017 and I still charge at home almost every time. That should tell you something... free is great, but sitting in a parking lot for 30-40 minutes every few days gets old fast. Waking up to a full battery is the whole point. If the only option near you is non-Tesla DC fast charging, it's a lot worse. I've had enough failed sessions on EA and EVgo that I just don't use them anymore.

Do you have access to a regular outlet at all? L1 is way more useful than people think if your commute is normal length.

The people who make it work long term almost always have charging at work. If you can plug in for 8 hours a day at the office, even slowly, that covers most commutes and you barely think about it. Without that, you're relying on DCFC, which is expensive and harder on your schedule. Not impossible, just not something I'd want to do with kids.

Also check how much winter will hurt you if you're somewhere cold. Charging more often on public chargers that are already slow in the cold is how people end up hating the car.

How many miles a week are you actually driving? That matters more than anything else here.

No outlet, it's an apartment lot with assigned spaces. Work doesn't have anything either. There are a couple of L2s at a grocery store about 10 minutes away, and a fast charger further out. I guess that's what I was afraid of hearing.

Ask the landlord anyway. A lot of them will put in an outlet or a shared charger if a few tenants ask, especially if you offer to pay for the electricity. A 20A circuit at your space would cover most people's daily driving. Worst case they say no and you're where you are now.

ask about the outlet, not a charger. sounds cheaper to them

I'll be the one to say it: home charging is what makes EV ownership work. I commute 75 miles round trip, and I can't imagine doing that off public chargers. You can make it work without home charging, but you're making it work. You're not enjoying it. That said, an apartment lot with assigned spaces is about the best case for getting something installed. The hard part of apartment EV charging is usually that nobody "owns" a space, so nobody wants to pay for a circuit to it. With assigned spaces the landlord can bill the cost to you, or put the outlet on your unit's meter if the panel is close enough. Check whether your state has a right-to-charge law. A handful do (California, Colorado, Florida, New York and a few others). Under those, the landlord can't just say no if you pay for the install and carry insurance on it. Georgia doesn't have one, so I'm going purely on what I've read. Also, don't write off the grocery store L2s yet. Find out what they actually deliver. A lot of retail L2s are only 6-7 kW, and if you're there for 45 minutes a couple of times a week, that covers a modest commute and not much more.

If you're in California, the landlord basically has to approve it if you're paying -- that's been the law for a while now. Worth a polite letter before you give up on the idea. The grocery L2s near me are broken about as often as they're working, for what it's worth.

Grocery store L2s are fine as long as nobody else in the area figures them out. Once a few more EVs show up they're never open when you need them

Grocery store L2s near me are always full of PHEVs parked there for 3 hours to get 10 miles. Unless the store charges an idle fee, I wouldn't count on them.