entombed in the shrine of zeroes and ones

N$I's monopolistic behavior was fairly evident early in the game; they were sued over their $50/yr fee for domains and forced to cut it to $35/yr (and, i think, issue refunds to some). They're still charging $30/yr when a modicum of research will yield registrars who charge $10 to $15/yr. If you need make a change that requires a person's attention, it can take forever. Plus, they were bought by Verisign —no stranger to monopolistic behavior such as buying out competitors— for the main goal of inheriting their considerable customer database for marketing purposes.