Most people think of websites when discussing domains. But the more personal, important, and perhaps valuable dimensions are the accompanying email addresses.
Corporate communications are increasingly electronic. A poor web address may be largely ignored owing to links & display of corporate name. But the email stands alone.
A lousy second-tier email address using .pop or .xyz is blatantly unprofessional. Moreover, this is a personal link to each employee, so weakness & embarrassment are magnified repeatedly. It can be money well-spent paying a few tens of thousands of dollars to purchase the .com -- while available, if available at all.
Worst case is losing email to leakage, when customers send queries to the .com address you don't own. If you are lucky, the mail will bounce back to sender, but such mail is often lost into a catch-all or the spam mailbox of the .com domain owner.
Short powerful .com domains remain best.
