Its all about the bottom line. I remember in days gone by ebay used to pay great homage to saying that you shouldnt rip off buyers when it comes to postage costs and now they take their final value fee on it as well as the item itself. So this move doesnt help buyers as you point out (no such thing as a Free Meal) and hence we sellers are forced to add the cost of shipping to the item to boost our ratings and lo and behold ebay take 7% of that as well (not to mention paypal who have always taken their fee on the whole transaction amount).

And heres the other catch .. if you as an honest seller want to refund the overpaid postage where a seller has paid for more than one item you can do so by Paypal refund but guess what .. ya dont get the ebay fee back on the refund .. so you are caught whatever way you swim in the ebay sea!