It is not broken, it does not need to be changed

We were all fine traveling in horse drawn carriages until they introduce those automobiles and then forced us to buy them. Don't get me started on this internet bizzo because I was fine going to the shops before that. Now I am forced to communicate anywhere at anytime using gadgets and I miss rushing home to my rotary phone to phone a friend...... Changes are often improvements, time can only determine how much or how little

as a seller be forced to buy postage through Ebay?

You have three options, have a pro store or free selling or not to sell on eBay, Nobody forces you to do any of those.

And stop pushing promoted listings & higher percentages of advertising spend, get buyers to the site

Jack and Jill made the best pies in Australia. Jack set up a stand on his street corner. Jill paid for TV commercials to their website. Jack said " Are you crazy spending all that money needlessly to sell the best pies in Australia?" Jill asked how many pies he had sold, Jack said 3 . Jill showed Jack they had 120 internet orders with the code advertised on TV. ....... You can choose not to spend to promote but you can't complain about not enough sales by not promoting