When ICANN opened this can of worms it resulted in some issues that still
haven't been fully resolved, although as you've noted they've faded in
relevance.
There is the question of ownership, particularly in regard to generic names
like .movies, and domains with multiple claims -- who should own .smith?
There were also complaints about the high fees ICANN was charging anyone
who wanted to be a domain registrar. It was thought that everyday web users
would be confused by the expected explosion in new top-level domains.
Businesses were worried they would have to register versions of their .com
domain names in the new TLDs in order to protect their brand. There was also a
brouhaha over the .xxx domain and whether adult sites would willingly exile
themselves to it.
Shortly after the new TLDs went live, it was seen that some of the registrars
were more lax than ICANN about what was being hosted in their name space.
There was some suspicion cast on any URL that wasn't in .com, and whether it was
deserved or not, domains like .info and .biz developed a little bit of a bad
reputation.
I don't know about any bidding wars, but there was dispute over ownership of
some new TLDs. The registrar fees are $4000 a year, and coupled with ICANN
rules speculation in new TLDs is virtually nonexistent. Otherwise, the hubbub
over the TLD expansion has greatly subsided. They seem to have settled into
becoming a niche item.
As usual, Wikipedia has a list, and it is informative to skim through it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains
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I lie awake -- I've gone to ground. I'm watching porn in my hotel dressing gown