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I mourn the end of the illustrative covers by such cover artists as "Peff" (Sam Peffer) which make a reasonable effort to portray part of the action or theme of the book. Now we get endless covers with a stock silhouette pic of a man in a long coat, or running, against a generic landscape.
I like to have what I think of as the best covers on my ebooks, and do fossick extensively on the web for them. Even ancient books such as Edgar Wallace have a wide choice available.
But I agree: you sell a product with an illustration, you should get the product illustrated. I do think it's a low act, and misleading to the point of bait and switch.
I am a fan of book covers. years ago I began scanning my old paperback covers before pitching the books out or selling them off, not knowing that decades later I would be slowly replacing those dead tree books with digital editions, and putting back on my old familiar covers.
Many covers are so good that you can't really improve on them, and look great in your Calibre gallery for browsing purposes. Think of that Agatha Christie "Death in the Clouds" paperback cover with the giant wasp above a 1930s airliner (it even featured in an episode of Dr Who!) If I shelled out to buy the ebook, I would swap out whatever cover they stuck me with for that one.
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