The other thing that the original post doesn't address at all is how rakeback against the rules is completely different than rakeback within the rules. The former are cheating scum. The latter are just doing business. It isn't the "rakeback" part of that that is the issue. Cheaters and crooks are bad for honest people. It just so happens that rakeback is one of the common areas of cheating... with web spam and email spam being others, but terms and conditions aren't usually as crystal clear on those.
"People want this extra incentive to play online poker. They are literally risking their funds with offshore companies who could withold payments, they need to feel like they can trust these sites."
And that is exactly one of the other key reasons the big sites will never allow third party rakeback and why rakeback will never be more than the footnote it is. These "offshore" companies don't need some third party ripping off their players, or blaming them for some issue they aren't involved in. The online poker industry needs to get the trust of players, and they do this by offering secure games, responsible financial transactions and a whole lot of other things where they TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for everything. Rakeback is an abdication of responsibility, and a can of worms to worry about. It is something that is blatantly obviously not needed -- clearly the cardrooms could just do it themselves better than third parties -- so why add the hassle? Either offer it themselves, or don't offer it.
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