Really? Because starting feb 28th it's only 12$/year, that's lower than pretty much any other decent TLD. Do indie devs really need the high demand domain names?
When I think of 'developers' I don't think of corporations with a $12k budget, sorry. What was cool about domain names back in the day was that anyone could register them, and you could get a cool name as an individual. I realize things are different now, and it's all about money.
It would be like Github launching a new web site and allowing 'developers' to select their usernames on a first-come basis if they paid $12k for the privilege. It's incredibly tacky and shows a lack of self-awareness on the part of Google.