all I can say regarding building businesses on keyword descriptive domains.. it just makes everything easier..
Easier to communicate your biz. Easier to get your foot in the door somewhere. Easier for introductions. Easier for consumers to remember your name (https://blog.nuts.com/were-going-nuts-dot-com/). Just easier all around. All those things added together can directly impact sales..
Kind of off topic, but if someone has a domain as valuable as "nuts.com", why ruin it by putting a subdomain in front of it? Why isn't the URI scheme "nuts.com/blog/were-going-nuts..."? There's no significant technical reason anymore for splitting multiple services into multiple subdomains.
Me personally, I simply look at how long it'd take me to pay off the domain. I like to pay them off in 1-1.5 years. So effectively, I'd need my company throwing off enough profit to pay off those domains in that time period. That rough guide keeps me on track so that I don't overpay at auction. But since most folks I compete with are speculators, and need to flip for a profit, versus me who wants to build a legit business, I can typically pay more as my profits can cover the extra expense..
And I'm with you on the subdomain on nuts.com. A really bad idea, imo.