It's not scarce though, its completely artificial scarcity.
Just because an auction means that people cant buy up every domain doesnt help anyone at the end of the system - it just ensures that domain name registrars capture the "value" instead of the scammers, the end user still gets a shitty deal.
So yeah, its stupid, and the system has only been fixed enough to keep getting itself paid.
It's very real scarcity. We're talking about a single unified globally unique namespace, that must serve billions of potential registrants. There are only so many short strings and common dictionary words available, and way more people want them than can get them. So a domain like e.g. clothing.com, or clothing.{some other popular TLD} is absolutely a very scarce economic good in a real sense. It's more scarce than almost anything else I can think of; most products are fungible and more can be manufactured to meet increased demand, but you can't sell multiple copies of the same domain name. A good domain name is like an original artwork by a known artist, in scarcity and in price.
No, way more spammers want them than can get them - most people dont own a domain name hence the word "potential".
Clothing.com is definitely something several people/businesses want, certainly, and having an actual auction for a good multiple users want isn't nefarious, its the "as the domain registrar to prevent middle men from capturing the value I will automatically do it instead" that is.
If you want to make it less so, offer some service to stop ripping off individuals who want to buy one domain - is there possibly of abuse there? sure? but whose making all the money here?
There's no one bidding (except in an abstract sense of wanting to own it all) on the domains I am talking about - they are free to register at any time as long as you can pony up the cash.
So who you propose runs the auction then, and who keeps the proceeds?
As for everything else you're proposing, I'm not sure I understand how it'd work. How do you "stop ripping off individuals who want to buy one domain"? If .web launches tomorrow and a thousand people want clothing.web, how do you allocate it without holding an auction? If you do a lottery, how do you know that each entrant is a bona fide person and not a ticket box stuffer? I'm not seeing workable solutions being proposed here.
On the domains you were talking about, there was an auction when the TLD launched, and those names just weren't taken during said auction. Plenty of others were.
The main issue is not the really scarce ones. As you've said:
> some domainer would've bought it milliseconds after launch, along with thousands of other speculative domains..
This is misallocation, which is an entirely different issue, and a more pressing one. And yes, I would put those guys to jail, as long as it was done fairly - their squatting may be worse than stealing.
Just because an auction means that people cant buy up every domain doesnt help anyone at the end of the system - it just ensures that domain name registrars capture the "value" instead of the scammers, the end user still gets a shitty deal.
So yeah, its stupid, and the system has only been fixed enough to keep getting itself paid.