That thread was from 23 days ago, based on the published white paper I think things may have changed. It seems like they have decided to keep the token names off of the blockchain and just use numerical identifiers instead. From the whitepaper:

An SMT is referred to by a numerical asset identifier or NAI, consisting of two at-signs followed by nine decimal digits, for example @@314159265 ... The reason for this restriction is that the blockchain designers want to discourage users from using the consensus level identifiers as symbol names, and instead use a nonconsensus directory system to attach human meaningful symbols to assets. Distinguishing a “namesquatter” from the legitimate owner of a brand is not something that a blockchain can do, especially if the squatter is willing to pay the SMT creation fee.

The next section discusses SMT naming a bit more, but either way it doesn't seem like reserving names on the blockchain will be possible.

Additionally while the code examples in the whitepaper say 1000 SBD as the SMT creation fee, however I think they just forgot to update those since in the SMT creation fee section it specifically says:

Initially, smt_creation_fee will be set to 1 SBD, and no means will be provided to update it.

Personally I think a 1000 SBD fee would be better since I think having too many useless SMTs will not be helpful to the usability of the platform.

Let me know if I'm misunderstanding anything!