I think a lot of developers tend to massively underestimate the value of product management and good copywriting. Granted it’s probably a lot harder to find people with those skills in open source communities but I think that having a clear idea of who your target audience is goes a long way.
They probably wanted to add Google domains to their ever growing product graveyard so I guess selling it is better than forcing everyone to fix their DNS.
Sucks though. Was really easy to use and for the most part just worked.