I'd say they are doing the best they can. The current policy is a good balance between protecting buyers and giving sellers the chance to move their stuff. It's a fact that nearly anything will sell for more on Ebay than other online forums. They've built a market and are entitled to profit from it.

There will always be scammers and deadbeats, and there will always be victims of said trash. It's still up to you to spot an unethical person and refuse to deal with them. Photos that don't seem right, spotty feedback history, sketchy descriptions, etc., all say "move on" to the smart user. The safeguards are there to protect the gullible from scammers, and they do a pretty good job. I didn't like the new feedback rule for sellers either, but I also know that sellers were very prone to feedback blackmail against buyers who had problems, so sellers wound up with better ratings than they deserved. There is a recourse for non-paying buyers and feedback blackmailers for sellers to use, so it's about as good as it can get in an online venture.