Only the people that need one, which isn't everyone. And they pay for it now because it's established that the internet is essential for doing business, but if

Only the people that need one, which isn't everyone. And they pay for it now because it's established that the internet is essential for doing business, but if domains had cost US$500 from the start we might not be in that position now. Hiking up domain name costs makes sense only because we live with an internet that was developed without ridiculously high domain name costs. Raising the cost now would be futile - it would actually make all the people hoarding domains a huge pile of money.