In the early days of internet all good domains were registered by individuals that were looking for securing the domain, if a big company wanted it, they would cash heavily.
Nowadays all good domains are locked under a heavy first registration fee.
For the regular individual looking for a good domain name, pretty much there's no different it being busy or locked to a fee, what is your opinion?
I just found a good domain today, but it had a fee of $500, I had no idea if that investment would ever pay of, so, it was a dead-end to me and I went for a cheaper one