First, no one is suggesting any gTLD (or cc TLD) will replace .com.
Second, .com is quite US centric. Many ccTLDs, for example, are actually more popular than .com in their home country. I see you're from Canada, and obv .ca is ubiquitous there.
What some suggest (including me) is that certain select gTLDs (and cc TLDs) can co-exist in a lane alongside .com.
.org for example has carved out quite a lane in non-profits and healthcare. It lives successfully in that lane. People don't post "well, .org is dead and has no life since it can't replace .com". It is not necessary for it to replace .com. It has its own lane.
Obv .ai and .io have carved out lanes and .xyz seems to be carving out a unique lane in crypto & blockchain.
My thesis is that .now can also carve out a successful lane. Unlike many other gTLDs it is broad, timely, & 3 characters and 1 syllable. It strongly leans into things people want now. Such as News (which is why 3 media companies switched to .now early on). But news is only one category of timeliness. There are many more.
It goes without saying people want more than "now". They, as you said, want dependability, and many other adjectives alongside. But that does not reduce .now's impact, it strengthens it. For those companies providing dependable products & services alongside timeliness - .now fits quite well. Better, I'd argue, than .com solely when looking at the 2 words side by side. Obv because .com started 30 years ago it has become ubiquitous but there is nothing inherent in it's structure that makes it so. The abbrev for company (com) simply does not have the powerful resonance as now. Over time, in its lane, I believe .now will carve out quite a lane for itself due to that reason (and many add'l reasons such as the fact that single dictionary coms are mostly in use or priced out of reach of 99% of businesses). So, for most, the choice becomes a com mashup, hyphens, numbers. misspellings, etc., vs a short dictionary .now.
it is not so simple to say a gTLD can't replace com so it is dead in the water. There is incredible nuance beyond your thesis. Further, solely within com, I'd suggest the bulk of people's com folios, which include mashups. hyphens, numbers, misspellings, etc are "dead in the water" as well.
com leads because it was first, not because it is best.
It has a moat due to time, but that moat is slowly and inevitably being whittled away.