It's easy to snap-criticize, but as a start-up community, maybe HN'ers can look at this in a positive light.
Refunding customers is the least they could've done.
So you're right. Google didn't do the least they could do; they still will give me what I paid for but they're also giving the money back. This approaches the most they could have done.
I'm still happy with the outcome. I get to hack on the device for a product idea I have _before most developers can even touch one_. And what consumer is going to be upset about Google pulling the launch of a product that was getting panned in the press anyways?
Yes, it'd be better to just hit a home run as you launch the product. Obviously that didn't happen, and no one is claiming it did. This is just the best way to fail they could think of.
This isn't a startup we are talking about. This is Google. One of the largest companies in the world. Heads need to roll if they couldn't work out the obvious problem that the Nexus Q had a massive product positioning problem.