It's not like regular people type in URLs much anyway, apart for a few sites (Google, Facebook, etc) - these days, pretty much everyone I've seen just googles the name.

I've even seen some adds actually say 'Google [word]' to find them instead of putting a URL, (or worse, 'Search [x] on Facebook!')

Exactly why it's an ICANN scheme and not serving the public interest - domains are becoming less and less relevant and they want to do one last try to extort money from businesses.

Yes. It is a cartel selling internet plumbing to technologists (bigco IT departments) and clue-challenged business-types as if this were some kind of perfect marketing strategy.

Best spend the money (USD 500K+) on SEO, or on simply improving the content and freshness of your existing site.