Does anyone still buy new .com domains at these prices? Why?

So I was wandering around some SERPs for valuable keywords and I found a #1 ranked site that caught my attention.

I checked it out and it was registered here https://publicdomainregistry.com/

Which made me wonder, does anyone still pay $35 for a new .com?

Is there an advantage to it? Does the whois spread faster, is DNS faster? Why would anyone pay 35 bucks for a new .com domain name on this day and age?

I don't think its SERP had anything to do with the registrar. Or did it?

Source: Does anyone still buy new .com domains at these prices? Why?