What stops a seller from selling a mint condition statue and shipping a broken one? NOTHING AT ALL.
Yeah everything about eBay has been evolutionary and unfortunately no better solutions have presented themselves. It's not a solvable problem. People just want to expect the safety they are accustomed to as a consumer also when they are a merchant. Sorry doesn't work that way.
Back when feedback was a dual system if a buyer had a problem it was an automatic negative retaliation from a seller. Then if they wanted to sell they had the negative feedback.
The only comparison to regular people and huge retailers is one of risk. Yes they have far higher sales and can offset it but many small mom and pop businesses assume and endure this risk everyday every time they ship something.
eBay cannot and should not become equal arbiter for both sides. eBay is only a market facilitator and usually there's no feasible way to snuff out the truth from what limited evidence could be presented. To keep people buying and using their service they had to pick a side and they went with the one actually bringing financial gain.
Point is there's always gonna be a risk and as seller if you can't personally bear the risk of losing the item then don't sell it on eBay. Or just don't ship it, deliver it yourself or have it picked up by the buyer. Not feasible you say? Well duh, neither is expecting a company to bear the responsibility for justice for millions of shipped transactions a month. That is what the court system is for which is still an option but yes we all know how worthwhile that will be as well because RELIABLE evidence will always be problem with shipping. As it states on EVERY auction
the listing is the sole responsibility of the seller.
You are selling on eBay because of the opportunity to reach a broader audience than you could on your own. eBay does not owe you the opportunity to reduce your own risk you yourself have assumed just by you using their service.