This is obviously a nuanced topic, with a lot of varying opinions.
I don't have a problem with handregs - I like them, I've sold them, and I have one particular hand-regged (two-word) .COM that has gotten 5 offers on DAN and Afternic already this month. If that one sells for anywhere close to the 6-figure BIN I've got on it, I may get my first celebratory tattoo:
$8.47.
(Or at least a fridge magnet). I don't actually want a dollar amount tattooed on my body.
The problem is, a lot of people treat it like a numbers game; I don't. I'd prefer quality over quantity. Maybe it works out well for some people to register 100s of different combinations at one time, using coupon codes, but I'd rather get 5-10 decent, commercially-viable names than end up with hundreds or thousands of names that don't mean very much.
If the keywords or term have
commercial value, and are something companies are currently advertising for, nobody's going to care too much that it's a handreg.
Most people spending too much money on handregs are registering the wrong terms. It's risky business for newcomers, because it's easy to get caught up and register awful names that end up being dropped.
[I've sold hand-regged .COMs from $500 to $5500]
I just hand-regged a name today - it previously had 15 years of history. ("product" "documentation")