The “never been to a previous game” argument is a straw man in the sense that I’d suggest the number of people who do that (and who did that previously) are a tiny minority of the people we’re talking about here. For people to buy tickets and then not attend would be a colossal waste of money.
Season tickets are bought on the premise that you have committed to purchase a ticket (albeit upfront) for all 19 league games that season, regardless of the date and time. The cup schemes work on the same premise. We don’t know when exactly the cup games will fall, but we imagine we will probably be able to get there. Sometimes life gets in the way, and that leads to people not being able to attend games they intended on going to. That’s why the ticket transfer system is there. For the odd game like that, it seems completely unreasonable of the club to prevent people from giving someone else the opportunity to use a ticket that has already been paid for, thereby filling a seat that would otherwise be empty.
Then there’s the communication. People weren’t told that transfer wasn’t available before they signed up to the cup schemes. The comms didn’t differentiate between league and cup. That in itself is another massive problem, and one the club needs to be held accountable for.
It seems to me that the club in general has completely lost touch with matchgoing fans, the treatment of people with the current state of supporter services and the implementation of this farce of a ticketing system leaves a real sour taste in the mouth. And they aren’t facing any kind of meaningful challenge about it.