This is a really long post but I hope that it gives you some light as I actually work in the industry & can shed some light on things that you've asked OP.
Obviously you missed out on buying One Direction tickets & are now upset that someone who also waited online in the same queue as you and went through the same processes you did beat you to the punch. Yes, people profiteer from scalping tickets & yes, it's illegal. It's been illegal for a long time now but that hasn't stopped many people from making a full time job out of it. As long as there have been concerts there have been scalpers selling tickets out the front of the venue and now more recently online.
The lead time for a tour & tickets going on sale depends on a few different factors including the current status of a band, how likely the tour is going to selling out, what the promoters have invested in the back end stuff (paying their 50% deposit to the artist, deposits on venues, marketing, ticketing agency fees etc) as well as things like being in talks with management & booking agents, trying to schedule in dates for a country that is twice as expensive to do a tour in as the rest of the world and other more menial things.
This particular tour went on sale because of the hysteria that was caused from the band visiting recently & the reason why it went on sale now & not in 6 or 12 months time is that while the band are hot now, they might not be in 3, 6, 12 months. Younger fans are very fickle these days, they move onto the next big thing quicker than you can blink. You think a promoter is going to wager millions of dollars on a tour that may not sell out in 12 months time? Don't think so, hence the long lead time between tickets going on sale & the actual concerts.
The ticket release time is part & parcel to the fact that people lose tickets that they have to hold onto for a long period of time & it is hard to re-issue these.
Promoters for this particular tour put a limit on the tickets that you could purchase, no more than 4 per show and a maximum of 12 per credit card meaning that if you really were a die hard fan you could go to up to 3 different shows on the tour with 3 other friends. 99% of people buying tickets wouldn't be able to either afford to do this or want to do it but it does leave a gaping hole for scalpers to take advantage of the situation.
Also, in relation to getting a refund on the tickets - if you hold the physical tickets, regardless of where you buy them from and a concert is cancelled you are entitled to a full refund of the purchase price listed on the ticket from the outlet where the ticket is purchased, if a concert is cancelled you just need to contact the relevant ticketing agency & apply for this. Some promoters will refund cancelled tours, some won't depending on the promoter & event. This clause is with any event that you go to though & you take the risk when you purchase tickets to something that it might not happen.
Anyway, hope this helps you. The laws definitely need to be changed so that genuine fans don't keep missing out to scalpers.
