So product spec change, yah boo sucks... happens all the time in the IT industry ....either deliberately or accidental.
I suspect if what you say is true, in Apple's case its probably inadvertent, maybe some code accidental regression somewhere ...as it seems like an odd deliberate change.
Anyway, point being its not exactly difficult to batch compress your images before loading them onto the iPad....so you do have a viable workaround to you if selling on Ebay and replacing with a new one is not an option.
Is the Ipad software up to date ?