That .io stuff is such a nothing burger. They have British passports and a load of cash, everyone can stop going on about it now imho.
Join the rest of the people in the world that have to live with decisions made in the past that are out of the general populous' control.
Unstoppable domains weren't able to keep one of their extensions going cause some other random org had taken it.
So why would .IO, which is intrinsically linked to it's new name "British Indian Ocean Territory"... If that goes then so goes the extension. Popularised because IO means input/output. So they want the money from it but want the name to vanish into thin air??
The British have been transparent and said that they make 0 profit of it.