Related to your #1, that makes sense if 100% of your prospective buyers know about the auction the minute it's opened, but in practice, many folks won't find out about the auction until, say, 30 days in, when they could have absolutely been interested in purchasing on day one.
In short, creating scarcity isn't the mechanism for the sale; knowing that it's even for sale is.
RE: #2, understood. I suppose it's just not clear that there _is_ additional administrative work that needs to be performed beyond the operational responsibilities you outlined, and it's not accounted for, where in virtually all other departments, it is.
Btw, in another post you talk about "illcit" questions; I think you mean "elicit," though it'd probably bring up both :)