...didn't mean to step on you quite so hard. See previous post re: frustrations...
You're right, it COULD be explained a bit more clearly to newbies. The bid increment question seems to trip people up in a LOT of ways -- I haven't really been counting, but it seems like just in the past week I've seen at least five newbie questions that were answered by some version of the phrase "That's because your proxy was less than the Minimum Bid Increment required."
But instructional writing is almost invariably referred to as "writing for people who won't read it anyway" which is why just about anyone who has ever worked on a Help Desk knows exactly what RTFM stands for... ("read the f***ing manual") It's much easier to ask someone than it is to look up the answer yourself.
The proxy biddding/bid increment system seems simple enough when you first look at it. My guess is that most people don't realize all the subtleties of it until they get bitten by them.
Tell ya what -- get one of us a job at eBay, and we'll re-write it for them!