Your Rank = You're Rank

Concerned that you authors were getting bored refreshing your Amazon book page, hoping for a move from #2,183 in Mysteries to #183 in Mysteries, the nice folks at Amazon have now instituted AMAZON AUTHOR RANK.

Now you can find out where you rank by category or overall. Here's an example which is totally not altered in any manner at all:

As of this typing, Sylvia Day is the greatest author, living or dead. She writes books about humping. 

According to a recent imaginary survey of real authors, 94% of authors are opposed to the new AMAZON AUTHOR RANK because it gives the authors "a sadz :(" for the rest of the day.

So why did Amazon start this ranking? Is it to sell more books? Is it to help readers find books they might like?

Is the AMAZON AUTHOR RANK so much different than the a list of best-selling books? 

Is it easier for authors to survive "Well, my book is down at #42,937, but at least I'm still handsome" than it is for authors to say "I'm the 826,983rd most popular author on Amazon"?