To me Managed Payments was one of those "Milestone Decisions", another being the introduction of FVF on P&P. That one being the start of ebay looking for short-term results from increasing fees rather than longer-term growth by increasing sales.
MP was, to me, when ebay went full-throttle to turn the site into a business oriented mall for new goods, turned its back on private sellers and decided they could sink or swim un-aided, but only if they could survive on an increasingly business oriented site. Every change since then might have been made for the benefit of businesses but any detrimental effects those changes had on non-business sellers were ignored.
Yes, what was called the "Ebay Fan Club/Fanboys" are very quiet these days. Those that so airily told private sellers how easy it was to set-up second on-line bank accounts when MP first started if they were unhappy about giving ebay their 'real world' bank details (What a mess that bad advice turned out to be for many a few months later). Who derided every complaint as 'scare-mongering' or looking for any excuse not to go along with (to them) something easily managed.
They laughingly told each other to start accounts hiring out 'droves' to help those leaving to go and regularly gave their opinion that ebay was better off without them, as they only cluttered-up the search results by selling mountains of tat (usually to each other).
They've become quieter with every subsequent change, as the droves departed and sales nose-dived further and for more businesses after every change.
Of course ebay's competition has flourished and the chickens are finally coming home to roost. Even ebay towers has at last noticed, gone into panic mode and made it Free To Sell for private sellers and even dusted off the long-ago promised "Ebay Wallet" to replace their PayPal Balance.
But then kicks them again with compulsory payment holds and their, so far unexplained, Simple Delivery. Which knowing ebay will be anything but simple, far too restrictive and all too obviously more beneficial to ebay than the private sellers that ebay are going to use as lab-rats. In all probability before rolling it out to what is left of its business sellers.
IMO it's too little and far too late to even try getting back ebay's biggest resource, its army of private sellers. Simply because ebay has been re-built for business sellers and tacking-on Free to Sell for private sellers won't make it a worthwhile selling experience, or any less horrendous for ordinary people to use.
