I am biased, since trading domain names is my profession.
I think it is perfectly fine that early users get rewarded if .btc “takes off”, since they helped kickstart the whole project and invested money into BNS when literally no one else was interested. Many of the early adopters are those that helped (and still help) promote BNS big time through twitter and other channels.
In the end it is always the market that decides, how much a domain is worth. And no “squatter” wants to keep their domains forever. They will sell at a price point, where they meet buyers and as a result help create a lively BNS ecosystem.
My main concern about what I am reading here:
DO NOT under any circumstances change prices or expiration dates retroactively for already registered domains. This would result in a gigantic loss of trust if that could be done, as everyone will wonder if it could happen anytime soon again.
I registered domains and did my calculations because it said 2 STX for 5 years.
All changes (if any) should only be implemented AFTER the original expiration date has been met.
As for pricing:
I like it simple and am in favor of keeping a flat fee for all domains, no matter how many characters. It is not set in stone for me though, but it always felt like an upgrade over ENS and the likes to just have a flat fee.
Price changes:
I also think at this point people would be very hesitant to break the bank to register domains that are connected to Stacks, which for most users is simply not the same as being directly on Bitcoin Layer 0/1. It is tough enough already to convince them at current $1.50 prices for 5 years.
Overall I am in favor of keeping the current model until we gain more momentum and have established BNS as the unchallenged #1 .btc namespace. Once that step is completed, and we have met certain milestones, then a change in price could be justified.
We should debate though, whether some part or all of the fees should go to a BNS related wallet instead of being burned, that can be used strictly to compensate devs working on BNS, or that can be used to compensate exchanges & wallets for their efforts to integrate BNS.