Except that eBay uses a particular auction model where by extending the time doesn't matter much.

If you bid the most you would be prepared to pay for something - you don't pay that price - you just pay enough to beat everyone else.

If you bid in a genuine way there's no pipped at the post situation - you just weren't prepared to pay more.

Now there are some secondary psychological effects, like a high price bid so far might increase bidders willingness to pay more, so there may be some advantage to bidding later, but overall there's less of a problem than it initially appears.

Perhaps bidders just need to be more honest with themselves about how much they were really prepared to pay.