Not OP but maintainer of an .io site... So you're telling me even though I pay yearly ICANN fees they can just remove .io without any warning or alternative? Or whats the "real" issue here?
Yes, they could (And it seems likely) discontinue the .io domain, first stopping new registrations then giving everyone a timeline to move off it (Hopefully 3-5 years). But if they want to pull the plug they have the authority to do so