it would be a global first come first serve namespace. Everything conceivable would be registered. Only the diversity of TLDs and SLDs saves the current DNS from this. In fact ICANN's money-grubbing TLD spam actually improved this, since there are now far too many TLDs to squat them all.
As an aside (I’m also annoyed by domain squatters etc), it is a fascinating market study how domains are artificially scarce the way they are when everyone can easily and cheaply buy them. I am not sure there is any reasonable solution to it.
I would actually prefer for the ICANN to have even less power and for the whole system to be even more distributed
The problem is the US is grandfathered in without staying inside its TLD. This was manageable when it was just .com .org .net etc. but now ICANN has abused this position to mint thousands of new US TLDs outside of .us. If they were inside .us this would only be a problem for whoever runs .us but because they are top-level it makes it difficult to have a decentralised root zone and not just rely on what ICANN publishes. Which is part of the point I'm sure.
You either use taxes from everyone to pay for it or you take money from the people using the thing.
Don't give them money until they stop wasting what they have, and chastise them for begging so hard.
One solution is running your own DNS servers. This way you can list your own TLD's. However good luck in convincing others to change their DNS.
It does make me wonder if I hosted my own root servers for a new dotCom tld would I get chased down by the internet police?
It's a bit like signing your website certificate with your own root certificate. The protocol itself is agnostic to who issues the root certificates, but good luck convincing distros to install yours by default, so your website will only be accessible by people who go far out of their way to install it.
It's a shame, because ICANN being under US jurisdiction is effectively an attack against the DNS.
Agreed. At least in 2016 we got the US to give up its veto power to the PTI which has global oversight. Still ofc the ICANN is just another company based in Los Angeles and falls under California and US legal jurisdiction. I would much prefer control be transferred to the UN ITU