A promise of money in the future is worth less than getting this money now. Present value (PV) here would be - how much you would pay now to get $X after T time.

Turns out that sum of PV($X in 1 year) + PV($X in 2 years) + … converges even though the series is infinite. Look up “perpetual bonds”.

The value of $10 paid annually forever is probably $200-500 depending on [things].

Source: I work in a bank but I’m also shit at finance so take this with a large grain of salt.

I agree, although if a business decides to close a service could it get tricky? What if all other providers charge much more and the provider can't sell your domain on to them to manage? Or they sell it on to an unscrupulous provider? A yearly fee means they can't get all the cash up front and then run.

But this would only converge if you assume the fees will stay fixed or at least grow more slowly than the discount rate.