I wonder if it would have been seen as a sign of prestige for startups if yc had become a domain provider for .yc
Nobody uses those for their intended "national country" use. .io and .ai are tech-focused, .tv pretty much only has tv stations or video providers on it and so on.
Even the "hacks".
Search "site:.ai Anguilla" for examples. You obviously be little reason to visit websites of Anguillan restaurants, government, telecoms, tourism etc but they exist. Within Anguilla it's a small signal of a local business.
Most of them do? I'm sure most .fr or .jp properties are operating in the French or Japanese markets. A handful of them (mostly the ones you list) have become trendy in other niches or provide opportunities for puns.