Skipping an opponents turn to when the winner is clear.

[ErikLevin]

OP, I agree with you, "out of time players cannot be kicked" should either be the only, or at least the default, setting for tournaments. I upvote all suggestions I come across that are to any similar effect (and meanwhile I don't play multiplayer elimination tournaments without that flag set). But as Frank said, that is then a site-wide suggestion. The same problem exists at least for any game where your final position can be deduced or reasonably guessed, before the final action is taken, which feels like most games.

[rambling_coherently]

Yet another win for 2p over 3p+

[schulni]

This strikes me as poor sportsmanship whether the winner is clear or not. There is plenty of time left in the tournament. Do people not join tournaments to play the game? I can't imagine ruining it for the first and second place person just to secure third instead of fourth.

[FrankJones]

This strikes me as poor sportsmanship whether the winner is clear or not. There is plenty of time left in the tournament. Do people not join tournaments to play the game? I can't imagine ruining it for the first and second place person just to secure third instead of fourth.

That's a subjective question. My answer is, "Yes, it's poor sportsmanship."

But, each player who joins a tournament can see the clock settings and decide whether to join or not.

Keep in mind, if the game is not completed by the arbitrary cut-off date, the game will terminate automatically and the winner will be decided by nothing other than which player used the least amount of thinking time. So, if player B is in the red on the ongoing clock timer, and player C has used less clock overall than player D, it's possible that player D would think, "Okay player B is dragging this game along. This is making me think this game will not be completed, and then player C will be awarded the win because that's how it is done for a game not completed in time."

At that point, player D might decide to kick player B.

[That obviously does not apply to the situation the OP described, since the game is one step from being completed in a timely manner. ]

[schulni]

To be clear, it's also bad sportsmanship to run out of time (barring emergencies), but in a four player game like this, it seems like worse sportsmanship to end it for everyone.