It's clearly to make players spend more money to get more tokens to use with auctions. I usually spend at most 15 tokens in negotiations, and I get a decent number of sellers accepting. Now I'll have to chance it with auctions, but the prices will be driven. They're banking on people losing patience with waiting for successful bids and spending more tokens to seal the deal.

I don't blame them, but they won't be getting extra money from me!