Don't bother asking why they're raising the prices. They'll just say "Because ICANN".
There are far too many domains that are "parked" because those transaction fees are so low. Add an extra zero and most of those domains will unlock.
PoW is a great proven way to combat fraud also.
Right now attackers can create a new domain and a new identity for 10USD, whether a phishing domain or a malicious brand.
That said, there's a lot of TLDs nowadays, and arguably what made .com popular was this precise price combination, which should only be adjusted for inflation, and arguably to adjust for exhaustion of names.
If you want to experiment with TLDs with higher cost of entry, go ahead and find another TLD, or setup an LLC with your domain and distinguish yourself from your competitors.
"Sorry, please use another address".
Odds are you are not missing much from a user@cryptoaicompany.xyz if they couldn't spend 10$ in a decent domain.
Yes, a security filtering system can have false positives. Can't get them all.
> "Plus I think it should be illegal from an net neutrality perspective "
This is what you would say if your only conception of law comes from reading stuff on the internet about the internet. I don't think you've had much legal training.
Keep in mind that domain names aren't used just for naming web sites or services. It's a distributed metadata distribution system with several other uses like mail server config, numerous TXT record types, WKD etc. If you take the stance that only the affluent should be allowed to access those services, it will defeat the purpose of the entire system.
The real problem with the DNS is that its design makes it amenable to economic exploitation. It's true that the system takes economic resources to maintain. I'm fine with paying that cost and don't believe that it would make domain names unaffordable. But ICANN and the others are certainly demonstrating increasingly rent seeking behavior lately.