I don' think anyone feels bad about GD, but I do feel bad for those who wasted time and effort (effectively those equal money) bidding on these domains that were renewed at the last-second.
I know GD is trying to align their partner contracts to halt this practice, but until then, they should not be putting domains up for auction until they are no longer able to be renewed. But it's a numbers game to GD, and they likely make more money than they lose by listing these partner domains early.