Not trying to pick a fight with you, just providing you a different perspective.
My point is not about the middlepersons, it is about trust. You made the point that the buyers should trust the seller and use a service for which they have no recourse if the seller does not perform, but you seem to be short on the same trust the other way and are providing explanations about like the buyer is in an inferior position compared to seller (they are at equal footing unless you have a rare item to sell), or that they are too timid, or whatever.
With a short-term rental the worst that could happen is they are out of a place to stay when they get there, and may not be able to get an alternative accommodation, or one within their budget, so they are out of the money paid originally plus whatever the "in-the-moment" charges you pay for the alternative arrangement. Not everyone has an infinite budget.
Going back to middlemen -- While I think paypal is wrong in charging the same fees regardless of whether the payor uses ACH or credit card, it is providing a financial service, and needs to be compensated, and as such is not a middleman like, say AirBNB (which again claims to provide a service of connecting renters to owners), not unlike how a short-term rental owner is a middleman between the person who prepared the land, got the building materials and built up the resorts, if mean if you built up the resort by your own, I apologize, otherwise you too are a middleman/woman with a lot of money to hoard up the service that someone wants.
By misusing F&F for business purposes, you are potentially causing paypal to, in future, drop the free service when it sees the service is misused. If you want to cut the middlemen, why not pay with a check or even hard cash, or use zelle if you want electronic payments.
Again not trying to antagonize you, just providing an alternative view.
