If counterfeits are easy to spot, they are also easy to avoid buying. But reporting such counterfeit listings to eBay may not be very effective if the folks programming the AI or making the determination do not know what to look for or how to distinguish counterfeits from real items in each possible category. Nor can eBay simply accept all reports at face value when some may be submitted by competing sellers with an axe to grind.
If counterfeits are hard to spot -- or if sellers are using pictures of real items but are actually delivering counterfeits -- then buyers can choose to avoid buying from sellers that lack a reputation worth protecting, particularly when such sellers are offering deals that are obviously too good to be true. Reporting a listing that advertises an actual item and that includes a real picture of a genuine item is not very effective because the listing by itself does not violate any policy. The fact that seller may intend to ship a fake item cannot be proven to eBay in advance just by looking at the listing.
The threshold at which buyers can simply choose to avoid making a purchase from a suspicious listing will always be much lower than the threshold eBay uses to take disciplinary action against a seller, since eBay has to at least try to avoid punishing innocent sellers, while buyers can still choose not buy based only on a "gut feeling" without violating the seller's rights.
