Not a money grab. All $$ paid by the winner of the gTLD are divvied up to the losers of the auction. ICANN isn't just printing money here or pocketing the price.
"ICANN condones private auctions, as it has encouraged applicants to resolve contention themselves, presumably through buy-outs, partnerships, and auctions. ICANN offers its own auction model as a last resort. All proceeds from gTLDs auctioned off under ICANN's auction model will go to ICANN as "excess funds" that will be redistributed at a later date, in ways that are yet to be determined.[2] "
"The first ICANN auction of last resort was concluded on 4 June 2014 for the string .信息 which had two applicants. The winning price was $600,000 US Dollars. ICANN used their authorized auction services provider Power Auctions, LLC to carry out the auctions."
Not really. The citation you mentioned above itself says, under "Private Auctions" --
> The winner will pay the amount of the second-highest bid, split either equally or proportionally between the losing applicants
And if you look at the news articles from the time that .blog was auctioned -- like http://domainincite.com/17991-blog-won-in-eight-figure-aucti... -- Minds + Machines, one of the losing bidders, revealed that they had received 3.4 million dollars after pulling out of the bidding for both `.blog` and `.store`
Also, apart from all the above which is public knowledge and there for you to find on your own, I work for Automattic, and when I checked with those who were involved with the .blog purchase, he confirmed that the winning bid was dispersed to the losing bidders. All in all, not a bad consolation prize.
"ICANN condones private auctions, as it has encouraged applicants to resolve contention themselves, presumably through buy-outs, partnerships, and auctions. ICANN offers its own auction model as a last resort. All proceeds from gTLDs auctioned off under ICANN's auction model will go to ICANN as "excess funds" that will be redistributed at a later date, in ways that are yet to be determined.[2] "
"The first ICANN auction of last resort was concluded on 4 June 2014 for the string .信息 which had two applicants. The winning price was $600,000 US Dollars. ICANN used their authorized auction services provider Power Auctions, LLC to carry out the auctions."
So looks like you are incorrect.