I don't see how that can continue indefinitely give the finite 2^32 addresses available. Agreed. I think that's why we don't see a lot of new ISP's starting u

I don't see how that can continue indefinitely give the finite 2^32 addresses available. Agreed. I think that's why we don't see a lot of new ISP's starting up and instead there are resellers provisioning on existing networks. The big kids are sitting on a lot of IPv4 space and there is no longer a way to pry it from their hands and now that to your point the IP's are worth more they will kick and scream if someone tries to take the unused space. In the early days ARIN and RIPE would harass people that didn't actively use their space but that stopped and I have no idea why. I remember having to set up Labrea to make several /16's, /17's and /19's pingable so they would leave me alone but that isn't a thing any more.