>Then why hasn't there been a gTLD reserved for local use?
there is. it's .internal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.internal
(note: i hope .lan does not get approved, but people have to understand that they are rolling dice when using unreserved names)
edit: fucking wild that this is downvoted into negatives. press the wiki link and read the first line if you don't believe me. in fact, i will quote it: "The name internal is reserved by ICANN "
The only ones rolling dice here is anyone attempting to use the .lan TLD for public services, given that OpenWrt (and by extension most GL.iNet products) will not publicly resolve .lan under their default configuration.
> Introduced 29 July 2024; 2 years ago
That explains why I hadn't heard of this yet. My current incarnation of my internal network dates from ~april 2024.