Why do I need premium for claiming an inactive username?

I was thinking of changing my username to @Tec, but sadly, this account is already there... But it's inactive! However, I've read through the support forms and found this article: https://support.chess.com/en/articles/8599051-how-do-i-request-an-inactive-username

The only problem is that I don't have a premium account to claim it... And my question is: Why do I need premium? Can someone please explain me that? I tried to give this question to this help ai, but I got no answer

For obvious reasons 🤑🤑

bEcaUse peoPle aRe gReeDy

They need money

It's a way of making you buy premium. Also to assure you're actually going to stay.

TecDragoman sounds unique and cool, why change it to just Tec?

I don't think ai will give you a good reason. It's a perk given to people who pay for premium, and I think it's quite fair.

Because I prefer Tec...

Fair