I know sniping is not fair...
But what is not fair is bidding on a single item on eBay, and getting outbid at the last moment, forcing you to do the whole process all over again.
If you attempted to bid on groups directly on eBay, and you win them all, you have to pay full cost for all of the items you won or risk getting Strikes on your eBay account.
If you cancelled bids directly on eBay, they brand you with a Retracting Bidder notice that alerts other sellers that you bid on their item and that you have performed a bid retraction recently, giving them a convenient opportunity to cancel your bid, regardless of your need for the item. Using AS also avoids this.
Bidding on groups through AS makes it easy to manage and cancel bids. If I win one item, I can cancel the rest of the bids with ease.
No doubt about it, AS is a winner.