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Because he's completed his half of the deal, putting full trust that you shall reciprocate in kind. He is the one who put that blind trust out there, not you. Why should your feedback left for him as a buyer depend on what he puts for you first?
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No, the buyer has not completed his half of the deal... online transactions are not brickfront purchases... and for a seller, doing business online demands that he have a good rating to establish trustworthiness for future business, otherwise he's dead in the water.
A buyer's feedback reputation isn't merely a reflection of "he pays"... obviously he pays, otherwise there would have been no transaction... it's also (and more importantly) a seller's assurance that the buyer is a reasonable customer and gives appropriate feedback himself... positive when the transaction goes well, or negative only in those instances where he's communicated properly with the seller when he was dissatisfied yet received no subsequent satisfaction.
Many folks, rightfully so, won't deal with a seller unless he has a certain level of feedback... so part of the buyer's "deal" with online transactions is the implicit agreement to leave good feedback for a satisfactory transaction or, if something goes wrong, communicate with the seller and give him a chance to make good before leaving negative feedback.
So I say again, until the buyer has fulfilled the
entirety of what an online transaction entails, the seller needs to protect his own reputation by first assuring that the buyer treats him fairly.
How would you feel as a seller if, for example, you sent out a package the day you got paid, including tracking and insurance, but because UPS somehow damaged the package en route, the buyer zaps you with a negative? Of if you were trying to establish a seller reputation online, but the buyers never left any feedback at all? Yet you're supposed to give them positive feedback automatically merely because of payment? I don't think so. Holding back feedback until the buyer has completed the ENTIRETY of what online transactions entail is the only way to protect your own good name.
I myself have been shorted several hundred feedbacks by lazy or inexperienced buyers... luckily for me, at this point it doesn't really matter as much because I have nearly 2000 positive feedbacks and an 100% rating.
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In practice, there's almost no real legal recourse if you send money and get nothing back. You can leave negative feedback, you can have their membership revoked, you can try to get the police interested if the amount is high enough, but you can't force them to return money without an interstate lawsuit, so stealing up to $5K from anyone at least 500 miles away is pretty safe.
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Speaking strictly from an eBay stance, this is why I use paypal as a buyer, and recommend it as a seller... there's some protection there from unscrupulous sellers in that paypal will get your money back for you from an eBay auction in which the seller didn't live up to his end of the bargain.
The best protection from bad sellers, though, is always to look at their feedback... personally, I won't buy anything from anyone with fewer than 50 feedbacks or any rating less than 99% positive. There's never a guarantee of course, but it cuts down on the probability of getting taken.