I wouldn’t necessarily agree. I owned a few domains related to my name (e.g., variants of <firstname><lastname>.com), but nothing as obsessive as what Steven Wolfram is known for, and I’ve probably owned them for as long as domains have been available. I never found much utility in it. Toward the end of my career, I considered using one as a professional profile not tied to LinkedIn, but I wouldn’t say it was a better use of my time than spending it with my grandkids. Many people in our industry could benefit from stepping away from creating work solely to stand out and instead enjoying their free time.
An email address that lives as long as you're willing to renew the domain?