You know, it makes sense that the scrolling gallery will be impacted because this is the kind of back door method ebay always uses to get what it wants---in this case, to use policy updates to further reduce competition and, secondarily, to force sellers to buy and maintain an ebay store. It is the same methodology behind the DSR system, in which a small seller cannot possibly survive. In fact, I have a very tiny account where now and then I sell a non-book item. I haven't sold on it since winter. After maybe 50 positives I got a neutral, which happens to be among the most recent feedbacks--i.e., the last to fall off. So with the 30-day rolling policy I'd end up with something like 6 positives and 1 neutral by November. I wrote to ebay and asked for advice on how to deal with it and asked their opinion about retroactively changing the terms under which users originally left neutrals. Anyway, guess what? They sent me a reply that said, "Dear so-and-so, We are sorry to hear you have decided to close your ebay account. Below please find a link that will help expedite the process. Best of luck in the future."
Well, they are definitely stonewalling on giving an answer to the scrolling gallery question and, like you say, asking live help is meaningless because their answers can't be enforced as policy. And it is true that their policy really is black-and-white, so if someone hedges it's probably intentional. Bwah!