I think a lot of people make bets like this that are very black and white. It's also very possible that something goes wrong at the registrar and your receipts aren't accepted because they don't have any records of it on their end. And society doesn't collapse but you're still screwed.
In this case I think 30+ years of ssl certs and other ephemera would help in this world where network solutions disappears but there is still an appeal to paperwork.
