Yes Branding is a part of it but do you think they may get a huge amount of TRAFFIC as well???

YES, YES, YES is the answer and its all about numbers the more traffic the better and those domains will get type in traffic buy the truck load.

Traffic first, branding a distant second in my books!

I know many companies that have gone broke spending good money after bad on "branding".

Rick Schwartz would know, after all he doesn't call his domain conference "B.R.A.N.D.I.N.G" its called "T.R.A.F.F.I.C" which is what those names in the list are all about.

The branding part is already done buy having a "Generic" name that everyone knows already such as "Books" or "Hotels" etc, etc ,etc NO Branding Required for those type of names.