If you think brandables Very.co.uk etc, then yes. There needs to be some stabilisers, such as bbc.co.uk still using the extension. If you think about it, domain names are still cheap even at £50k for a large new business. You can spend that in one day in a broadsheet.
I think of it like this. If you are advertising on TV for an online company, you want as many people as possible to visit the site. Take Ocean Finance for example. They have now got a TV channel 888 on Sky. Thats an expensive bit of kit. If they think it's worth the investment, then why not an expensive domain name with zero chance of losing people. Although, I note they do now own Ocean.co.uk.
I buy brandables, as you can generall quote a high price. It's not dependant on the end users product, and I think will, long term, beat these Google lovin keyword rich exacts, which look to be on shakey ground. Dunno - who does?