Since you mention "all users that have support ticket access get notified" the notifications you can manage from Contacts, but limiting who has access or not I believe it's not supported natively.
Check how long it takes for the cron to complete when you run manually from SSH. I believe that 300 ms is not enough time, also if you check WHMCS I believe 64MB is also not enough, should be at least 128MB
eNom might not be cheaper and i believe the same (haven't checked their prices), but it's ok for starters when you just need the ability to provide domain registration, not the best option business wise.
The fact that some things take years is one of the reasons I didn't ask.
The good part is that also 3rd party companies create modules like this one but I agree on this one also! A native solution sounds better....as long as it gets updated differently than the PM