I guess one potential downside is if you mess up and forget to renew the domain on time and some jerk (automated system) buys it up and tries to resell it for a

I guess one potential downside is if you mess up and forget to renew the domain on time and some jerk (automated system) buys it up and tries to resell it for a ridiculously high price. Happened to me even on my firstnamelastname.com domain.