@cherute: Proposal for

This would perhaps require a bit more coding, but it would make a process that is more equitable and less susceptible to network jams.

Prior to the start of a sale, set up a page that allows users to enter the total # of items they wish to purchase in the sale and authorize the necessary funding for the purchase. Once the sale starts the transactions will happen automatically according to the rules below which would also apply to manual transactions
Limit the # of items that a user can purchase in a single transaction
Set a cooldown between transactions per user
Set a maximum mint number
A formula could be applied to both the item limit and the cooldown so that, for example, the limit could go up after a set time to allow whales to make larger purchases once the initial rush is over.

(Just giving the idea - these numbers would probably not be ideal)

For pack presales set a transaction limit of 100 gems/transaction and a cooldown of 1 min between transactions. After 5 minutes raise the limit to 500 gems and after 10 minutes remove the limit.
For items with smaller mint limits like the Runies set the limit to 1

This would allow users from any time zone, on any work schedule, with any kind of disabilities, etc. to participate in the sale
Krill and Minnows would have an opportunity to get their small purchases in before the Whales swallow the bulk of the sale
Automating the purchase transactions should give more control and prevent network congestion and related issues
Having intended sales pre-entered would give the developers an idea ahead of time about the level of interest in the sale
Having the limit/cooldown follow a formula allows a great deal of flexibility for different types of sales

You might lose a tiny bit of the FOMO factor
Maybe some difficulties with the transaction authorizations? I'm assuming that since we can set up pre-authorized buy orders on PeakMonsters that we could do something similar for this.