To me the only problem with the auction last year was that the Expo was advertised as continuing past it when in reality it was all over once the auction ended (apart form helping people take pins away).
It was understandable that the Expo had to be funded somehow, so an auction seemed a reasonable way to do it. However, the auction did not attract enough buyers willing to fight over machines and only a handful of machines went for top dollar, so I get why they lost money.
The bottom line is someone or some group of people have to put their dollars on the line to get an Expo happening.
