the name matters, chess.com= automatically associates with something central about chess. (dot com) lich-ess can be read as lich-chess or leeches, both leave repulsive associations, effectively sub-conscious anti-marketing.

So it's all about who has millions of dollars to buy common word domain names from scalpers. That's a marketing expense.

The "lichess" name is terrible, the way the word itself looks is off-putting.

It's like why they use sharp points in the hazmat symbol, it just looks bad even if you don't know what it means.