Rebuy tourney over before break

Is this unusual? I typically avoid tournaments with rebuys, but when I've played them it seems like people have been pretty die-hard.

Last night I played a satellite tourney which paid out 1 seat in a quarter final WSOP qualifier for every 11 entries and rebuys. There were ten participants and there ended up being three spots paid -- two quarter final seats and $4 to third place.

The strange thing was, plenty of people did rebuys but no one wanted to do enough of them to stick around long enough to earn a paid spot (entry fee was $2 and rebuys were the same). They dropped out one by one and the entire tourney was over before the break. Now, I don't usually play tourneys with rebuys because I understand not wanting to pony up time after time to stay in, but when I do enter one of them I'm prepared to rebuy up until the break (or preferably play well enough/conservatively enough) not to have to.

I was lucky enough to make it to heads-up and earn a quarter final seat without rebuying, but got another surprise when my opponent didn't know it didn't matter who actually won. I guess he hadn't checked the prize structure after the rebuys... is it just me who flips back and forth to the lobby compulsively to check on things like that?