I think what the reality is, but not sure, is that the registrar in question pays the renewal hoping that the customer will (or won't) reactivate the domain.
Nope, it's a registry thing. Even the less rapacious registrars like Tucows charge a lot to recover domains during the redemption period.
Danny, I again echo your concern about registrar malpractice. I think there is alot of 'insider trading' going on amongst registrars, registries, resellers, and aftermarket brokers. This will only get worse if we don't actively look into this matter.
I don't see much evidence of that, although I do see some fairly sleazy practices related to transfers. I'm still getting lots of fake renewal invoices from DROC/DROA/LibertyNames despite their having been spanked in Canada and I think also the US. And of course, there's domain kiting. R's, John