forgetting this is domain names, the concept is flawed in any business.
basically just dropped the A-Bomb
is correct , would an electricity provider do this? no.
they are not in a strong enough position to use this tactic imo. no future sales, massive drop outs, investor drop out because of increased holding costs, the only people staying are the ones trapped but be assured they will be planning a way out and it won't be to another nTLD
then when other registries follow suite it cascades across the industry.
if .com increased by 300% there would be outcry but it would die as its to strong, the same thing happened a few years ago in the WP plugin industry, they all got together, changed the terms and didn't honour past agreements, some of my "for life" plugins turned into "grandfather" in which i'd start paying again in 2 years, i felt betrayed as it was my premium price i paid that helped them get that strong advantage only to be bitten by it.
they think they survived but they didn't, just go to fiverr and you can get almost any $60USD plugin into your site for $5 ( i don't )
this must be a MASSIVE hidden dint in their sales, WHY, because they were greedy.
people like me NEED these paid plugins to do specific tasks and its worth paying a reasonable price for them, but most people don't NEED a nTLD given they haven't proven themselves on google yet imo
i suspect other nTLD owners are making huge decisions.
tim