You could say that about every government, yet there's widespread corruption in most (or all) countries[1]. There's even corruption in democratic governments that are directly accountable to their citizens every few years (via elections). Given the way the ICANN board is appointed is... indirect at best, thinking that ICANN are the "good guys" is wishful thinking at best.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index
At least the goal of the public sector is to serve the public whereas the goal of the private sector is to serve the interests of there shareholders.
If this was a private company on both sides wouldn't we just be hailing it as a big win for shareholders and/or demanding the government step in and intervene?
If you believe that, hypothetically the best choice would be some sort of private nonprofit, independent of the government but bound to inaction by charter.
Whether being directly controlled by government would be an improvement is somewhat debatable - would lawmakers be reasonably hands-off, like they are with things like GPS and NIST time services? Or would the opportunity to block pornhub/piratebay/wikileaks prove irresistible?
1. It doesn't deliver the claimed increase the supply of domain names, as no-one would build a business or brand on whatever.info without securing whatever.com
2. It does shake down domain registrants for cash - if you already own whatever.com you'd better get whatever.info and whatever.sucks before someone else squats them.
3. These factors mean .info domains and suchlike are a stereotype of sketchy sites, which is a negative feedback loop.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ICANN&oldid=93014...
That's probably too extreme, but I love it as a starting point / baseline!
Goal, yes. In the abstract. Unfortunately, humans run everything. Most humans are decent and will try to uphold the public good. Some get into positions of control and decide they can profit off of it, so why not?
Society's constant struggle is to keep these greedy F*'s from screwing the rest of us. Just like freedom must be paid for, so must we constantly root out corruption and greed.
Imagine if this kind of 'accountability' was applied to the rest of society. Oh, you robbed a bank? Well, you're banned from this branch for 4 years! Don't do it again!