They got a lot of links to abc.xyz when they announced the name change. Think of every major news source linking to it. People don't talk about the regular alphabet a lot online, and when they do, what would they link to?

Nothing nefarious here. It's the same reason that [python] shows a whole bunch of links to the programming language and one news story about Monty Python, with no mention of the animal. Or why [jaguar] has 2 links, 3 ads, and a knowledge panel about the car, a bunch of tweets and news stories about the sports team, and only one link about the cat. Google shows you what people talk about, not what's in people's heads.