It's not clear at all that they "voluntarily ceded control of it". The exact chain of events is disputed, but it appears quite possible that Niue never had control of their ccTLD at all -- that it was first delegated to someone outside the Niue government, without that government's approval, and that this error was never corrected.

> because "they didn't recognize the financial benefit control". Well no kidding, few realized the potential of the web.

They were assigned a TLD, and fed wrong advice by an advisor who breached his trust duty, then did a swinging door from government to industry

> The advisor to the Government at that time was an ex-peace corp volunteer named Richard Saint Clair. Mr Saint Clair told the Government that the name meant nothing, that it was of no value or significance, and there was nothing that could be done. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Saint Clair then left his post as advisor and joined with Mr Semich in his organization – IUSN

> The use of neo-colonialism is just expansive use of a term for marketing reasons.

No, it's more like palladium ore being discovered on your property, and you signing it away in exchange of free internet for life.

It's called swindling

No it's not like palladium ore being found in your property. It's like 100 years in the future in a different language then your own some arrangement of symbols which theoretically could be construed to refer to you is used in intellectual property by parties for purposes completely alien to you. But you realize that there is money to made and you say where is my rightful piece of a pie I didn't know existed and was baked by complete strangers

> Well no kidding, few realised the potential of the web.

Not just the web. This is how Africa was raped of its resources. Tribes being convinced to part with hundreds of thousands of hectares of "useless" land that they had no idea had mineral wealth under it.