you must take this into

consideration that CIS is a bureaucratic agency. They must follow their regulation, instead of commen sense.
You give a good example about 485 denial when 140 is denied in a 140 485 concurrent filing. However, CIS argues that a lot of work have been done on 485 after filling such as data entry, finger print, certain security check. As far as I know, after a receipt is issued, there is no way to get your filling fee back, at least data entry is done.