But people do put a lot of weight on it. Feedback = trustability to a lot of people (though it obviously shouldn't). I've seen people offering their services here and calling themselves a 'trusted user' just because they did a few deals with the right people. It's like a badge of honour to a lot of people and I suppose it gives them the edge over someone who has zero feedback so that's why it's worth something. Some campaigns have even started offering higher payments if you've got it which is ludicrous and just encourages more abuse.
I feel that is their problem more than anyone else's. Feedback should be taken exactly for what it is, not some algorithm created green numbers. If someone has 100 positive feedback for 0.001 BTC trades, that wouldn't mean I'd trust them with 1 BTC even if their score is higher than someone I would trust with 1 BTC. If someone does a trade, I believe they deserve accurate feedback for it. I really don't like the green/red numbers. They are a cop out for people who don't feel they need to read a person's feedback and judge its validity for themselves. I've added a few people to my trust list in the past that asked me to remove them because they didn't want to have to change any of their feedback habits because of cases like this, and I really think its a shame. I added them specifically for their feedback habits, and those are exactly the type of people that I think needed to be on DT.
You can leave them neutral. An ebay-like system is far from perfect as well and wouldn't really work on here for numerous reasons.
Neutral kind of has its own connotation to it. Of course I read someone's neutral trust before I judge what it means, but that split second before I start reading and I see that font, I think that its someone on DT that wanted to give a negative for something, but because of their position decided against it. I find its more useful for comments about a person, their behavior, or just general notes that you think someone should see before they trade with that person. It doesn't feel right to give someone a neutral when you've done a successful trade with them.
As far as the Ebay like feedback system is concerned, I meant in format, not with the backing of a paid central company monitoring it. You leave someone feedback, and its saved on a page that can be brought up and filtered if someone would like to search through it, and a field where the person can respond on their own profile to claims against them.