Tom, as far as appearance I would have to agree with you; but I can go back to the ebay boards and provide links for post after post about complaints about the scrolling galleries.
If everyone was using a fast connection, then it would be an absolute must to use. This is not the case, anyone who uses dial-up gets locked up - especially when it is at the top of the listing. If you are on a slow connection, the gallery has a very long load time and most do not want to wait for pics to load. I have heard more complaints about the Vendio gallery, and that it actually will not load the entire auction until the gallery loads.
I know someone stated that it only takes 7 - 10 seconds for the gallery to load. What kind of connection was this tested on? Was it in an ebay listing? I have cut mine down as much as possible to get it to an acceptable loading time for dial up and mine is still considered high.
I test my times with this site. Load Time Testing