Quite right, it is a different matter.
However, here’s an interesting static, there are approx 300,000 registered businesses’ here in Ireland (source enterprise Ireland) yet the IEDR have only sold 50,000 names to date. The restriction of access impedes many peoples ability to purchase a .ie domain.
How may times yourself have you answered questions on boards, explaining to people, the hoops they must jump through before they can buy a .ie.
The IEDR over the last couple of years have dropped their price and developed a better control panel for resellers, this is good, and fair play, operators like yourself have passed this saving on to your customers. However, I believe competition in the market can only benefit the customer and increase the efficiency of registries and availability of names people want.