The bottom line is that this non-value-adding obstacle should not be there at all, and I should not have to jump through hoops with my security and ad blocking software to use E-bay.
How much is it worth not to have your account taken over by a hacker using a script to try different passwords?
Captcha makes certain kinds of account takeovers less likely. Even if you are certain your own account could never be taken over that way, you benefit by others' accounts being more secure as well, making it less likely a person you are dealing with in a transaction is a scammer.
eBay is unlikely to entirely do away with passwords or verification because some users have problems with them or find them a waste of time, at least not until someone finds a better way to keep unauthorized users out of others' accounts.
For most users, dealing with a Captcha test should happen only once in a while -- perhaps once per month on any given account. I typically only run into those tests when signing in to an unfamiliar site in another country or when trying out an unfamiliar browsers to test them, or after specifically clearing eBay cookies to fix some other issue.
If you are encountering multiple Captcha tests per day or finding it difficult or impossible to pass the Captcha test or to make use of the accessibility options, then possibly there is something about the way your computer, browser or network is set up -- or something about the way you are using the site -- that is contributing to the issue you are facing.
