Yeah and it's because of people like me. When there are 2 items, both pretty much the same, if not from the same factory. If one is sold directly by amazon then I'd pick that one over the third party. Why? It's so much easier to get a replacement/refund/return with amazon than third party sellers.

If third parties are all selling the same thing then amazon can probably make more profit than the third party as well, so that's why amazon will also do it.

Now I do wish Amazon would pay more tax etc etc, but people like me make it easy for them to operate and do things like this.