If you don't want a counter select "No Counter." It does work correctly. I have verified through both the get "HTML" icon feature on the saved listings page and via preview.
I have not heard of any listings being ended anywhere. Sometimes an over zealous or new eBay rep makes a bad choice or liberally applies some rule to end listings. I don't know if that is what happened. Sometimes a seller interprets a generic ended email from eBay to mean it's something other than why it was ended. We'll have to sort this out with eBay if I can find someone who's got an email from eBay saying this is the reason.