Wow, that is harsh. I'd also not be comfortable bidding against someone who's photo is the greyed out guy that is used when no "real" pic is uploaded - as I'd be worried I'd be against either a bot, a spam account or someone trying to get me to waste Tokens.
I've even used the grey pic myself before when doing bidding and noticed slightly better results when trying to get players. I think that puts a few others off too as if they can't see a face to the bidder it makes them question who they are in a battle with.
That guy paid 3.42M for the player with 1.58M market value? That's crazy. On my server I don't even look at the players with selling price just 10% below their market value. For example my last signing was 2 tokens and 3.57M for the MC with 5.1M market value.
And my whole team is just like that.