As a travel agent I have the ability to redeem them for deposits, payments or final payment, not sure why Royals staff can't. It's just like a credit card.
If it is a rate thst is booked directly into a group it is always refundable. Rates booked as FIT and moved into the group may either be refundable or non refundable.
The passenger count for the most part will not be that much different that the other Oasis class ships. There are actually a few hundred less rooms on this ship than Wonder. What is different is the number of rooms that hold 3 and 4 guests and other than holidays and summer will not all be maxed out. Even then I highly doubt that you will see the ship at max occupancy. While 4 in a room may work for small kids it is less than ideal for teenagers or adults
You may have been lucky but I have had all kinds of issues on other ships and all I can say from actually experiencing both is that this is far superior.
Also the amount of extra money they paid for this new system on a $2B ship is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. The prices would have been this high regardless as it is being priced at what the market will bear and has no correlation to what they paid to build the ship. If they spent half as much to build the ship and they could still charge the rates that they are they would do so.
One more observation.
There is a lot less pace devoted to retail stores on this ship and more space for venues and bars.
The watch stores are gone and are now basically display cases on the sides of one of the halls manned by one person.
Guarantee staterooms unless listed on the website are generally not available for solo travellors.
When they are offered you stand a high chance of getting assigned a studio room and not getting double points