Unfortunately I am stuck in commitments on a few of these domains and just had to eat the cost increases, the rest I moved to .com/.net.
.consulting was the worst offender.
Yes, I view most 'new' TLDs as scams. They lure you in with a low price, a rather pricey renewal and then price hike after price hike down the line. They also charge a premium for most dictionary words right from the start.
I'd counter that it's best to stick to ccTLDs as opposed to gTLDs (with the exception of com/org/net I guess). You can assess the stability of a ccTLD based on the associated political situation and any legal questions typically have a clear jurisdiction whereas gTLDs are a total crapshoot in all regards.
Like if you make video softaware and it's called "Emerald" then Emerald.video is imho a be a better domain name than emeraldvideo.com (and probably taken already) provided .video is not a gouging you on the annual renewal and is not calling it a 'premium' domain and reserving the right to hike up your renewal at any point in the future to any amount they decide.