There are only so many viable combinations of 4-letter domain names... $2400 seems pretty fair compared to what .com's of the same length are going for (50K-$1m+ for random 4 letter combinations)
As a user, I would not want willingly join in a new name system that benefits an arbitrary company so much. ICANN forces use of domain registrars so I have no choice. A future system should be better, I think.