no_such_reality, I don’t know why you think auction with reserve are not real auction. Reserve is just there so that seller have an option not to sell to too low of a bid. If the reserve is too high and there was someone who bid on it, then too bad of them if they got caught up in the bidding war. If you do your research, then you, as a bidder, should have a max bid on an item/house as well. So if your max bid>reserve, then you both win, if not, then the house/item doesn’t sell and the seller will lose some money for putting it on auction.
