Its fair to request a refund if you invested through a vehicle with terms that require either fulfillment of the offered reward or a refund.
The terms of service at Kickstarter require a refund if the project creator is unable or unwilling to provide the offered rewards, not only if he didn't really try.
I maintain that if Kickstarter is "pay money now for gifts later" then they are not in compliance with either Visa's terms of service (no delayed renumeration for payments, a policy explicitly there to avoid "I have money ten months ago, and am now angry"), as well as laws regarding collecting sales tax (which are quite clearly written in a way that keeps you from just claiming "oh yeah, this thing where people give me money and I give them products? trust me: that's not a purchase... don't tax me, bro").
That's quite possibly true, but doesn't affect the fact that there ToS has a pay money now for stuff later model, and that people who have paid money have a legitimate expectation to get their stuff or a refund.
The terms of service at Kickstarter require a refund if the project creator is unable or unwilling to provide the offered rewards, not only if he didn't really try.