New gTLDs are again on promo prices for first year, with some registrars, so we can expect a bit of comeback.
However, my personal opinion, is that such $2 promo sales really hurt those domains, as scammers buy them cheap, for a short term scam website, and in the end it results in the domain being treated as renown scamming domain, with the whole domain getting bad search engine ranking.
Actually a domain that has a higher registration and renewal price will not be a target for scammer website creators, so it will enjoy better reputation overall.