[arp242]

Some reputable ccTLDs don't have grace periods, and there may be good reasons for choosing such a TLD. Ten years is not the rest of your life (I hope, anyway) and you certainly won't be able to use the auto-renewal from your previous comment after 10 years. Sucks to be you if you happen to be in a hospital at that time I guess.

Are the chances small? Sure. But some are also outside your control and apply "small chance of [..]" to a large enough population and before you know it you're excluding millions of people.

[precommunicator]

To increase your chances with that issue, you pay for 10 years once, and then every year extend it by 1 year, giving you 9 years grace period in the worst case scenario (I don't know how but my providers allowed me to even stretch it to 11/10 years). If you're in a coma for 9 years that puts you on Wikpedia list of longest comas, so not really an issue. And if falsely imprisoned for that long, I think you can arrange something within that period to extend it.