I have had this discussion over and over over the years. People like sniping because they believe it gets them a lower price. They may pretend otherwise, but if it resulted in them paying higher prices, no one would want sniping.
Not having sniping DOES result in higher prices overall, which is why we get higher prices overall than places with sniping.
So you can choose not to participate at all (cutting off your nose to spite your face), or you can adapt to it. How? By managing to be at a computer when items you really care about close (even if it means setting an alarm or postponing a jog) and placing your first bid exactly 5 minutes before the item closes, and then only bidding one increment over the current high bid, and then deciding whether to bid again if you are outbid.
On items you can't be there for, place a bid at a level where you would be very happy to buy them at, and if you get them, you got a great buy, and if you don't, well, you know you didn't care that much or you would have made the effort to be there at the end.
The above is optimum strategy for time-extended auctions. And while they do result in higher prices overall, there are two great benefits. Whenever someone forgets to bid (or boycotts the auction altogether) you may get a great buy, and whenever you really care about an item, it can't be snatched away from you at the last second as it can be in a fixed-time ending auction.
Ask yourself this. If all bidders fully used snipe programs, then EVERY fixed-time ending auction would have NO bids until the very end, and then each person would get to enter a single blind bid! Is that what you want?
And fixed-time ending auctions, which did not exist before eBay are clearly dying out. Consignors get less money overall, so there are fewer and fewer fixed-time ending auctions. If they are so wonderful, why doesn't Heritage make their major auctions fixed-time ending auctions?
Adapt!