[brfox]

Its not just a "blessing that the biggest classified ad site in the US is run by a guy who cares more about user-experience than money," it is the main reason why it is such a success. If someone tried to make gobs of money doing this or didn't realize the true value of local-only exchanges, then they couldn't be nearly as popular as craigslist among so many people, geeks and non-geeks alike.