Right now, the 10K XCR fee needed to register a delegate will be earned back only after there have been approx 202 Million XCR transferred in the network, and provided that that particular delegate is up 100% of the time and in the top 101 voted delegates.
This 10K seems too high for small fish and it will exclude lots of users.
Not if you register a delegate early. The 10K delegate fee is part of the transaction fee reward system, and is divided among the top 101 forging delegates. So each delegate earns 90XCR for each new delegate that is registered. If you are a top 101 delegate, and 111 other delegates are registered, you have earned your registration fee back already, not even counting other trans fees earned.