Due to similar bad timing I got my first Playstation right before the hack in the early 2010s that took down the Playstation network for a whole month. When they offered a make-good to their customers I didn't qualify because my account was too new. I never bought another Sony product again.
i think Steam's biggest moat was always understanding that a $50 refund is a $500+ future customer
It boggles my mind that more companies don't understand this. A happy customer is a long term customer is a profitable customer. Pissing off your customers by treating them badly just ensures you get less or zero additional money out of them. You'd think that'd be Business 101, but idiots run the world by smashing and grabbing their quick paychecks and dashing out the door before their bad decisions catch up to them.
And understanding that the marginal cost of their product rounds to $0. Refunds are more or less free, especially if people will take Steam credit back.