My own root DNS server

[weekend hacker]

That's true. So it costs a lot to just be registered on a DNS' index of search results, huh?

its not quite an index of search results, but basically.. yes.
Keep in mind that it took icann over 6 years of discussions to allow this sort of thing, its all fairly new.

[not_essence2]

Well, not a search engine in the usual sense, but it's similar as in they call them "DNS lookup servers".
...What was the issue with allowing people to make new TLDs with a bunch of money again?

[weekend hacker]

The issue is they've never done it before and are scared of domain squatters. They don't want everyone to just create whatever tld they come up with so they keep costs high and will do research before accepting things, limiting it to companies who have copyright or some other reason to be the only ones who can own a name. And they don't want similar names out of fear that people will mistype something and get to the competition. For instance, if someone ware to register .apples then apple can't have .apple because its too similar.
They justify the huge cost to limit who can do it and in preparation of inevitable lawsuits from those that disagree with their decisions.
You can find all that info and more on https://newgtlds.icann.org/

[not_essence2]

Ah. Sensible. If I was in charge of the DNS servers and who got to do what with TLDs, the Internet would be screwed.