The reasoning being that most people shy away from these combinations, so there are likely to be fewer winners sharing the payout

Actually, the guy at Wizardofodds.com says precisely the opposite, and I think I agree with him. It only takes a handful of jokers playing "1 2 3 4 5 6 7" to really ruin the payout for you. And among all of the people playing our state lottery, I'm sure there's a lot more than just a handful of jokers. You also have the people running wheeling systems where that combination (or something similar) is one of the wheeled patterns.

For the record, I'd like to say that I've never bought a lottery ticket (but sadly I can't, as I was once sent to buy one for someone else).

I forget who first said, "the lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math." Course, I still buy the occasional ticket for the hell of it. Cheaper than dropping hundreds at blackjack. Hey, wait, I do that, too. Argh, I have too much discretionary income.