ISO 3166-1 is specifically for current names, identifiers, etc. of countries etc.

Once an entry is removed from that part of the standard, it gets moved over to ISO 3166-3, so if you need to reference historical entities you can use that.

The problem is that gTLDs (generic TLDs, as opposed to ccTLDs) are, by definition, at least three characters long, going back to the originals such as com, net, org, gov, etc.

This is because the ccTLD namespace is a direct mapping of the ISO alpha-2 country codes, so if in the future the ISO were to add a new country to the standard (which, as mentioned in the article, is broadly used in many different fields, not unique or specific to domains) with that code (years after deleting the old one), that new country would be entitled to their own ccTLD, just like any other country, and you couldn’t just say to them “oops, sorry, that one’s already taken”.

It’s depended on the local registry forever. Some ccTLDs let you register at the root (e.g. .cn, .io, .cc) others don’t/didn’t and require a second level a lá .co.uk

It’s not a question of preference. All rules are subject to human interpretation and opinion when implemented in practice – that’s what we call “regulation”.

It’s not a country it’s a moon.
Stop that disrespect towards Ionians.

https://hitlerdidnothingwrong.ok/