Yes me, but that's unrelated. Different biz.
Does this justify refunding money for services rendered and goods provided? Refusing to process further transactions when someone is found in violation of terms/policies is obvious, but straight up returning money? On top of that, does Stripe not know who they do business with? I would assume you get asked what you're selling and have a chat with someone who determines whether you're legit or not.
In a company I worked for, there was serious KYC from our payment provider before we were allowed to process customer funds.
Underwriting is what happens when a business works in part by putting up some of its own money to smooth things over for its customers. Payments is an underwriting business. For an example of what happens when you do an underwriting business that would never cause anyone on HN to complain, see: FTX.
But, really: who knows? They haven't told us what the business is.
Isn't this the world we live in? A bank will ask you these questions when you open an account with them, why can't Stripe? Because growth?
Edit: Also, much harder? Filling out a questionnaire a human looks at, then takes a cursory glance of where you're registered, what you're registered for and what your website looks like? That doesn't sound like much work for the upsides.
This smells like the classic "There's nothing we could do, dude!", when a company can't be bothered to do due diligence, then dumps all the externalities of that on someone else. Stripe could do this, they just don't, as it makes more money, ruining (possibly legitimate/legal) businesses in the process.
There's a good comment upthread about alternatives to Stripe, of which there are many. The good ones distinguish themselves by being the kinds of places where businesses like StoreCycle can't get an account in the first place.
In summary: the words "possibly legitimate" in your comment are doing most of the work of this entire thread.
I think the change in comment tells you all you need to know...