> What basis would you have to do otherwise, and if there is something (like TLD), why wouldn't "resetting to zero" in terms of past content just mean resetting to that zero?
Fair enough, but I'm not sure it resolves "haunted" domains as a TLD which is often abused could have a lower "0" reputation and thus by default is "haunted". Perhaps it lessens the impact though by how much is quite opaque to us.
> Whether the TLD itself has some reputation is orthogonal to the reputation of one domain in that TLD relative to another one in the same TLD.
I think this depends on how reputation works and is not so clear. Registrars for these TLD also have a responsibility but have no incentives to stop abusers. If TLD domain reputation is not orthogonal to reputation individual domains on that TLD then that could be an incentive for them to also crack down on abuse as their domains have bad SEO etc.
> If the primary goal is to reduce engineering effort then the obvious solution is to delete the entire reputation system so it doesn't have to be maintained anymore. If the primary goal is to make it work well then you have to, well, you know.
I think this is the most uncharitable interpretation. The eng effort could go to features that improves other customer experiences affecting more people.