Me too. Even earlier.

But your last described problem is getting more and more obvious with the years. I always had lots of domains since there were domains for purchase. Even when it where very very expensive. Yet, despite all the progress, people so often respond to your own email with “errr…@gmail.com?” And you have to explain, no it’s just name@surname.de and they don’t understand what you’re talking about and why your email doesn’t end in gmail. And some at least know a world outside gmail, yet struggle with TLDs other than .com or .de (or other local TLDs in other countries probably)…

It hurts. And it got worse. People totally unlearned what the net even is.