As far as TLD's go, it's not a matter of actually being more secure or functional or whatever. Functionally they are all equal.
It is a matter of PERCEPTION
Seriously, if you see a .tk,.kn, .ru, .in or .lv I bet you are a little more leary about it on first glance more than a .com.
Why do you think Mtgox is mtgox.com and NOT mtgox.jp ?
Like it or not, this is a fact and denial doesn't change it.
Back on topic
SolidCoin's decision to close the license will kill and probably already has killed SC. Without Bitparking and Ruxum there are no exchanges worth trading on.
No way to trade, means no future.
That argument is extremely shallow. It is the equivalent to judging a site purely on the layout/style rather then the underlying code - it is in general a bad idea.
I do agree that this decision to move away from open source does threaten the future of solid coin. My site though is not tied to the success of SC, our primary currency has been bitcoin and will continue to be. However to be fair my exchange is now up to 85k volume for today so there is still a way to trade.
If you ever come up with some legitimate criticism of my exchange feel free to email me and I will try to resolve it as fast as possible.