I can’t help but think that this is the wrong approach by Kickstarter. I think it should only be possible to ask for refunds if the creator doesn’t make a good faith effort.
The creator can just not offer rewards.
Or small no-risk rewards that are worthless but let the backer enjoy the fact they backed. If that isn't enough to encourage someone to back, that's tacit admission that they're backing to "buy" the reward.
Hm, yeah, right, didn’t really look at it from that angle.
However, I’m not sure how well that would work. I mean, I would personally have no problem with conditional rewards. (I backed Broken Age and I would have no problem with the reward being “Access to our documentary episodes of the making of the game and the game if we manage to finish it”.)
I’m backing to get the reward, of course, but I accept that the project might fail and that I might not get a reward. I have no problem with that. But if the creators actually manage to make something in the end I would still like to get that thing automatically.
The creator can just not offer rewards.
Or small no-risk rewards that are worthless but let the backer enjoy the fact they backed. If that isn't enough to encourage someone to back, that's tacit admission that they're backing to "buy" the reward.