Whether or not eBay refunds a buyer is really none of your concern.  $255 is but a drop in the ocean when compared to eBay's profits.

They've created a successful business model by providing the MBG - part of which includes refunding the buyer if certain conditions are met. 

Lucky for you, they also provide seller protection - which you've just used.

Of course there are going to be cases where people play the system, but they have no way of knowing who's telling the truth (i.e. if it's the buyer or the seller who is rorting the system). This is why the protections are in place. They take it upon themselves to refund the buyer while allowing the seller to keep the proceeds of the transaction. It doesn't take long for patterns to appear, outing the fraudster and resulting in them becoming NARU.

In the grand scheme of things, refunding buyers out of their own pocket for any claim is really nothing at all to eBay.