This really gets to the crux of the question. Quite honestly, the cost of most BE flights is so small that a refund is almost a trivial matter compared to actually getting to you destination in a timely fashion. And the last few rough travel days I've run into recently, I've heard zero comments from CS gate agents about direct vs 3rd party booking, just getting people onto new flights to get them where they're going. Going sideways doesn't actually seem to matter for ticketed air travel - again, basic economy only; not a creditable/refundable class that might see value in re-use later if voluntarily abandoned for alternate travel means.

My initial post was musing over United's basic offerings, but I remember that last year I mistyped my wife's name on a LoganAir (admittedly not NA) basic ticket and it was cheaper to buy her a new ticket on the day of travel than to pay the ticket-alteration fee. Didn't matter that I'd booked direct, so it wouldn't have mattered if I'd used a CC portal.