No it wasn't, the LLLL.com became a thing after westerners realized that weird LLLL.com letter-soups sold. Not realizing that it the Chinese market was the driving force here.
Compare these arbitrary rules to the Chinese premiums.
You could get $1,000 for a domain if it did not contain a, e, i, o, u, or v. I.e. you could use any of 20 letters with no rules of placement or anything like that. And that's what you could liquidate them for.
You can't do that for "western premiums." You need to actively find a buyer.
Take a look at the list.
Show attachment 255894
A "western premium" selling for $19.
No one uses these domains.
Even if you look for successful companies that use four-letter letter-soups like
ebay or
etsy, these are not premium according to you because they end in a "y."
Meanwhile where are the companies that use unpronounceable garbage like hstf.com? Because I haven't seen them.