I don’t think that is how it works.
Some info on how these top level domains came into existence can be learned from this video
You’ll never guess the most popular internet country code
There are many ccTLD retained by ICAN after the country became non-existent. The Soviet Union is an example.
Oh, I was not aware about the 2022 policy. Thanks for sharing. I completely agree with the last point that if they retain the ‘.io’, it will be a complete opposite of the written policy.
My company has a ‘.io’ domain. We have to plan for the scenario of ‘.io’ getting retired, I guess.