I think it would spell the end of eBay. The whole appeal of eBay is that you know when the auction is going to end, so you don't have to 'be there' in order to participate. People just need to deal with the fact that a live 'going, going, gone' auction and an 'end at a set time' auction are two different animals.
Back when I used eBay I used a snipe program quite often on items I really wanted, like stamps for my collection. Other stuff, like jazz CDs, I generally just checked out the 'closing soon' stuff and sniped on my own.
Just as a side note, I don't understand how anyone who has played poker could not appreciate sniping on eBay...