Comment by andyjohnson0

I get the rationale, but I feel that this is bad advice.

A well-run, reputable domain registrar will give you plenty of warnings when a domain is coming up for renewal. And when the domain expires there is usually [1] a period afterwards when it can be retrieved before anyone else can buy it.

Set the domain to auto-renew, make sure the registrar has your payment details, set calendar reminders. Its not difficult.

The alternative is gmail or similar, where you can lose access to your email, and perhaps the root of your digital "identity", at the whim of some hair-trigger algorithm [2] and be left unable to even communicate with the provider to get it fixed.

So get a domain from a decent registrar. Pay several years in advance. Keep your payment and contact details up to date.

[1] based on my experience of Cloudflare and other registrars

[2] plenty of examples of this on HN and elsewhere