Meanwhile, .tech exists and is not country-specific but is far less popular for some reason.

Simple answer: length.

Two chars look a lot better than something with more chars, and all two chars TLD are ccTLDs.

No, it isn’t.

There are different names for different airlines, like economy plus or extra. Usually it means something like a bit bigger seats (usually not lie flat though), a less crowded section, better food, etc.

But then it is the developers fault, never management