Why do we use tax brackets?
I think you've misunderstood how the (UK) income tax brackets work. They work differently to how stamp duty used to work.

Stamp duty brackets used to be absolute rates: so when the purchase price crossed over the bracket threshold by £1, the marginal rate would be huge, as the whole purchase price was taxed in the higher rate. Hence the clustering.

That's not what happens with income tax. (and it's no longer what happens with stamp duty, either)

With income tax, only the amount of income that's above the threshold, gets taxed at the higher rate. So, the marginal rate is always equal to the band rate. i.e. if the rates are as in your example, and your income rises from 10,000 to 10,001 then you would pay 10% on the first 10,000 and 20% on the extra 1. You would not pay 20% on all 10,001.