I also don’t know Garfield’s reasoning for it but based on what I’ve read about how he viewed deck building and card acquisition he may have wanted the game to be more fluid or natural, like just use what you have or what you can locally trade for. Ante may have been natural for him as a way to get cards for your deck or have decks change over time.

It also may be relevant that other games at the time that got popular, like Pogs, would be played for keeps or for fun too. Marbles as well I believe. That may have been a more normal part of games, especially those with a collectibility aspect to them. I never played Pogs for keeps either though and hated that aspect too.

What Garfield is missing a bit is that better or older players can take advantage of worse or younger players, and it can create tons of feel bad if you lose a prized card. I think the trade offs just are not there at all and would love to find out more about why he liked it so much.