how does keeping domains away from people with little money provide any value?
> Or not, it could have been claimed (e.g. for a hobby project that's permanently work in progress) with the owner not checking their email.
As long as the owner pays the fee who gives a f? What makes a hobby project less worthy then a professional product?
True, it doesn't. Then again, how is it different from property prices? A business that wants to open a shop in a premium location has to pay a higher price. I may be not seeing something, but to me this looks similar.
> As long as the owner pays the fee who gives a f?
I think other market users would become annoyed. Businesses would still have trouble coming up with names, but now they would have no way to solve that with money. And users would have to deal with more "creative" names.
The value is that the market becomes more efficient.