[sarcasm]OH MY GOD I DID NOT KNOW THAT.[/sarcasm]
Right. Are we done?
It was my understanding that the total number of points was only a tiebreaker, and that the primary determining factor was, indeed, the wins.
My hypothesis, personally, is that the Snitch varies for different levels of play. Harry is uncommonly good for a high-schooler, so he usually catches the scholastic-level snitch without too much difficulty. But when he’s watching the World Cup, he’s notably impressed by just how much better than him Krum is, and I think he even recognizes that the Irish seeker is better than he. Yet Krum didn’t catch the Snitch any quicker than Harry typically did, and even at that, it was regarded as an uncommonly quick World Cup game. So far as I can tell, the typical World Cup-level game does still last many hours or days, plenty of time for Quaffle scores to be significant.
I also don’t necessarily see anything inherently implausible with a professional-level athlete trying to salvage some honor, despite losing. After all, if you look at professional chess (no less competitive than any physical sport), most games are concluded by the decision of the players (whether an agreed-upon draw, or a concession), not by mate. It’s considered extremely rude to play a game out to its bitter end, and I can imagine that there might be a similar ethic in Quidditch. However, I still think that Krum was wrong to end the game as he did. It was explained away by his team being so far behind that there was no chance of them catching up, but really, they were only one goal behind (or two, depending on how ties are counted… The Snitch really ought to be worth 145 or 155, to prevent ties). Sure, maybe it was unlikely that Bulgaria would get another goal before Ireland did, but there was definitely still a fighting chance: The Quaffle scores were, what, 30 for Bulgaria and 190 for Ireland? That suggests that there was a 13% chance or so that the next goal would be Bulgaria, at which point they would have “caught up”. You don’t concede in the face of a 1 in 10 chance of winning.