this was a cash booking and not a reward booking?

yes the fare conditions will be whatever you agreed to at the time you made the booking. there is no reason to believe that what ba were selling you would have the exact same conditions of whatever qr was offering you on the same flight in terms of fare conditions. generally speaking, what you mention is a typical cancellation condition for non-refundable fares sold on ba - i.e. refund of taxes and fees only. you can select options when booking to provide quotes for refundable fares if that's what you are after.

i don't see any systemic issue here tbh - unless you are suggesting all QR (and other oneworld fares) are refundable? I assume had you booked a non-refundable fare on QR, you don't get anything back other than taxes and some fees either?