I'm no lawyer but I would think that there would be exceptions to their policies in times of crisis

Yes because the luxury business customer's wants to have the UHD they paid a small sum for do not trump other people's needs to be able to work from home in order to eat and keep the real economy working because of a pandemic.

that's fine, but how is that a retort to giving someone their money back after you can't provide that service anymore

It's not a retort to that -- It's a retort to the person asking for their money back.

It is saying "what you are upset about does not matter. Don't bother someone else with it", which is both an insult and correct.

It's not Netflix that can't handle the load, though. It's your ISP. If there's anyone to be angry with, it's them.

I'm not claiming that Netflix and other services shouldn't help out the ISPs, because you're right that WFH > Netflix, but if they can't deliver what their customers paid for, they should be sending partial refunds.

It's really the issue on the part of the ISPs for not being able to provide enough service to support everyone's internet activity.

If Netflix wants to help them out with that issue they also have to bear the cost of helping them out with that issue.

If a university closes because of the pandemic they sure as hell won't charge room/board, and (if they're kind) won't charge as much for online courses.

The price factor is irrelevant ("a small sum"), and if it is, Netflix should have no problem refunding "a small sum".

Now we just need to establish that Netflix streaming is actually hurting working remotely.