Too bad domain names are generally written in the 'wrong' order. These issues would have been preventable if domain names were written the following way: https://org.example.www/index.html
I remember (very vaguely) reading into the debates around domain name sequence and being irritated that natural readability won out over scope order. Codified so deeply for so long that there''s no hope of ever changing it except in limited circumstances (Java class hierarchy for example).
You're right, the benefit isn't really about character differences. In both cases users need to be taught that '-' isn't a divider and '.' is a divider. The benefit is that it would be easier to teach people to start on the left then search right than it is to teach people to start at the leftmost / (but not the ones in the scheme) then search left.
It means that information to the left is always the important part. Right now you have to find the '/', evaluate the components leftwards, return to the '/' and evaluate components rightwards.
Given that finding the '/' is not always trivial (broken screen example in the article) and doing this requires you to think a lot of people won't do it.
Sigh.