I suppose they could, in theory, negotiate a better deal with the nic.io folks, with the pitch that making it easier to register domains will increase overall r

I suppose they could, in theory, negotiate a better deal with the nic.io folks, with the pitch that making it easier to register domains will increase overall registration. Like you've said, nic.io isn't the most user friendly experience. I stopped myself a few times when registering, wondering if I was indeed on the correct site (because the official domain registry for a TLD couldn't possibly be this awkward).