The distinction I see here is that you are paying for specific selections ahead of time. When it was free, there was no refund to give. However, if the transaction was done in another country, and say PP goes down and you don't get to ride that, then there may be issues with consumer pretection laws in other countries.
Now I think this seems completely ridiculous, but there has to be a reason why this is in place for the time being. That's the logical difference that I can think of that might be an issue. Then if guest A from Ireland gets a refund because they didn't ride Pan, guest B from Iowa wants to know why they don't get a refund for the same thing.
As you can tell, I have to really think hard to find a reason for this to make any sense. And hopefully they will resolve whatever issue they are concerned about in the next 2 weeks.