| People should keep in mind that some
  | of the 2-letter TLDs were created as a way around the $50 NSI fee.

This is just as much gibberish as the previous statement.   The country
domains were *all* created in the mid 80's.  NB: created, not delegated.
They were all created at the same time, except the few extra that have been
added by the ISO people since as part of revisions of 3166.

Back then, no-one was even considering charging for domain names.

A (small minority) of the more exotic country domains may have been delegated
as a response to charging, and NSI's policies, (though I wouldn't say as a
way around the fee).

kre