I think if you read over the PayPal descriptions which I'll grant I haven't done in years, Friends and Family is for transferring funds between friends and family. Friend and Family isn't meant for any other transaction. I have transferred thousands between myself and pool or poker playing friends that got themselves in a bind. Had some pretty damned nice jelly shipped to me too! None of these transactions involved buying or selling and I didn't hesitate to use Friends and Family.
When you buy or sell using Friends and Family you are indeed ripping off PayPal and abusing the service. If PayPal meant for Friends and Family to be used for unprotected purchases I am sure they would say so or start another option that specified it was for purchases with no protection.
Those that use Friends and Family to avoid paying transaction fees then get ripped off themselves have no whine coming. They are a lot like would be pool hustlers that find out their fish was really a shark! Tough potato. If you think that less than one in thirty-three of your transactions will go bad and you don't have ethical issues with ducking PayPal fees, go for it and just play the odds. However, those that do this shouldn't whine when they get burned. Unless they are total dummies they weighed the odds before giving up protections for three percent.
By the way, with unknown sellers I often use PayPal rather than a credit card because I don't know how trustworthy they are to be giving my credit card information to and I have no idea how well they protect their financial data. That can be well worth the PayPal three percent in my opinion, I am buying without setting myself up for ID theft! Some small items are offered for just that purpose.
Hu