The buyer's agent fee is basically subsidizing the hard work of buyer's agents (which is taking their clients to multiple properties, discussions about what they want, using time browsing MLS to find houses that meet criteria and arranging tours of them)

When I was looking to buy a house, my agent received no financial compensation from me at any point. Their work was entirely subsidized by the buyer's agent fee - and we looked at a lot of houses trying to find the right one.

The negative effect of that is that they're incentivized to offload us asap.