Tldr: Verisign, the registrar of the .com tld. They have been jacking up domain prices.

Maintaining a single tld is a part time job at best.

ICANN jacking tld prices has been a problem so long people complained about it the first time ICANN was created to overtake IANA.

Not only is this well known, it’s literally displayed for everyone to see with registrars fighting over domains with ads and people buying cheap alternatives tlds.