I agree EBay's rating system is intended to have an economic, rather than aesthetic basis.

For ebay to suceed they need to make people feel comfortable doing something they are normally comfortable with, that is paying for goods online from people they dont now, or naturally trust.

That, I beleive, is the reason they will not be tough in making people look bad. Overall it will be bad for them.

However in the long term I will hope that a lake of empathy or ethics will bring them down.

BTW I pointed out a deliberate lie left against me in neg FB regarding the price. Seller techno56 said the price was lower than what I paid, just to trivialise what I was complaining about. Ebay said they couldnt do anything about it!