Yeah, and this, right here, is a huge reason why I don't buy vanity domains based on country codes. Political structures can change quickly, and I really don't want to have to rebrand something just because some country decides it wants to restrict its country-code TLDs (e.g. the .ml TLD is owned by Mali, and they could totally push to restrict it to Malian residents).
I stick with the normal ones, like .com, .info, or .org, or content-specific ones like .games.
Most people weren't following the Chagos Islands news, and I doubt most people with .io names bothered to check any notifications here. A lot of people just pick them up and set them to auto-renew and generally don't think about it again. Those people won't be impacted today, but they will be once the domains get transitioned away, and it'll be a rude awakening for a lot of people.
The simple solution is to not buy country TLDs unless you live in that country or something.
I've seen a lot of hobby projects using .io because it looks high tech or whatever. I'm just saying people should avoid using country TLDs unless they live in that country or do business there.
I'm not saying I'm "concerned" or anything, just that the impact will be fairly large and noticeable.