I agree with you. Honestly I don't like the idea of refund. I played the game a lot with daily tokens or hundreds of them but I always assumed my bids so hopefully everyone would understand that nobody is forcing them to bid so there's no reason to "cry" if you lose your tokens.
Indeed the picture sure an visual improvement, a star that fills based on how far your player is to a new star and trust me guys this would be good for the seller because is more likely to increase the player price in the end but I believe there is also something extra new but what seems to be a secret for the moment.
Refunding the tokens would increase a lot the money spent from now on as long those who have money and tokens won't be afraid to go few miles extra to take what they want.