There are some other nice benefits as well. We mask your interest in the item, lulling others into believe the item either is not sought after or there will be no or few bidders. It's a little harder now with eBay hiding ID's but back in the day I used to search for what other buyers were bidding on that were bidding against me to find other items I might want. I found a lot of great deals and items I'd be interested in that way.
And being able to cancel your snipe up until the last few minutes is very nice. On eBay once you've bid that's it.