A boomer in up and coming DN progression once dm'd here me early 2020, asked if I had looked into this thing called Handshake, and provided me resources. He was also a fellow new G' enthusiast like me. Something about literally owning your own TLD, on the blockchain. I replied, nope, didn't have time for fanciful fantasies in domaining but thanked him.
A few months later, I coincidently came across that thing called Handshake, looked into it and played around, and realized there was something to it. The entry barrier was merely bidding on name auctions with HNS coin or buying the TLD outright if it was for sale. I tried a couple, either by creating my own and winning the auction or just buying the name, and configured the TLD to see if it would actually resolve. Indeed it did, via the hard work put into by early dev pioneers to make it possible.
I was hooked. Seeing a TLD you own resolve to a site you created is nothing short of euphoric. There will indeed be late bloomers to this field, but it is still opportune and likely will be for some years. This was the beginning of what we see now as "web3" or "decentralized".
For me personally, it is a dream come true in terms of domain names, the elimination of an extension dependent on a for-profit organization where you actually own the word in its totality. Boomer or late bloomer, nothing stays the same forever and even if we perceive that there is nothing wrong with the traditional methods of Internet naming and resolving, there are obvious facts we cannot overlook: quality limitations, saturation and innovation limitations.
The future will reflect the early stages we are at right now, only in a more concrete measurable status, whereby that traditional extensions and new naming protocols are not about who's ahead or what will be the next dot-whatever, but working in tandem by those who chose to use what's best for them. It doesn't really matter what we chose to invest in, as long as it reflects a vision that goes beyond a personal agenda of just making money.