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The nearest analogy I can think of for a domain name is a phone number. There is a minimum fee necessary to keep the phone number (or domain name) active under your name. Depending on what you use the phone (or domain) for, additional costs can arise, but (whether these are paid or not) they do not affect your rights to the phone number (or domain name).
In both cases, there is a central authority that grants you rights to the phone number (or domain name) under certain conditions and subject to payment of the basic fees. I would argue that the ultimate ownership lies with that authority, although they delegate most of those rights to you for a limited period. Depending on the phone company (or registrar) fees will vary, and are subject to change.
The "ownership" of the right to register a domain for you varies according to the top level of the domain name and rules determined by a central naming authority (IANA). Those with control of the top level domains, in turn, can determine rules for registration of sub domains. Those with ownership of the rights to some top level domains can (and do) charge extortionate fees for allowing you to register selected names under that .tld, and are able (with little recourse on your part) to demand unreasonable amounts of money for you to retain your rights to your domain name. These costs have nothing to do with engineering running costs, but are a straight money grab.
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