I think an impactful feature like this should not be implemented in this way (based on whether users like the feature or not). Everyone wants lower taxes, but only a few realize the impact of such wish.
What I think you should do is inquire about the pains and desires of users, and then find solutions (plural!) for those with the staff that fit in your view on the game. Make sure you develop the right solution to the right problem. Take into account the core principles involved:
- Do we want time on site to be a competitive advantage or do we want other aspects to determine success?
- Do we want as fair competition and prices as possible or do we want variance for managers to take advantage of?
Personally I don't think this feature will result in what proponents like to see. Because what this might seem to do is improve the chances of buying a player below market value, because you place a max bid that you don't have to pay if no-one else bids that high. But because this feature will be available for all, others will also use auto-bid and thus generate the higher bids that drive up the price towards actual market value. So the hypothetical situation in which a user gets a player below market value because of this auto-bid wouldn't occur a lot I expect. Instead, you'll get what you would get if you just bid your max bid right away in the current situation, and people already have that option. And in both cases you can still get outbid at the end by an online user, because I also think managers don't have a set max bid (that's why you see bidwars).
What I do think that auto-bid helps with getting prices that are currently below market value closer to market value, since accessability increases. If that's what we want, great, but I don't see that a lot as a reason in favor of the auto-bid. I do see it as reaons against the auto-bid, since there's less opportunity to buy below market value and there's a fair share of managers that like that. At the same time there's people that prefer equal opportunity prices, so you won't be able to please everyone, that's why I think you should decide what best fits in your view on the game. You can base that on the % of users that like one or the other, but then you should inquire about those principles, not about features.