"The cancellation fees are there for everyone to see".... if you look hard enough.
I think a fee of $300 to cancel or change a flight that might only cost a bit more than that in the first place is a very substantial cost to factor into your holiday, and should properly be featured quite conspicuously in any papers connected with the transaction. If Flight Centre points it out to you and ensures you are aware of it, then I would agree with Mel_Traveller... there's no point in the traveller coming back later and saying, "Oh, I knew all about it, but I didn't really believe they'd actually go ahead and do it!"
My point, as someone who dealt several times pre-2015 with Flight Centre, is that the fee was never pointed out to me, and I didn't spend that fifteen minutes going through the contract with a fine-tooth comb to find it for myself. Clearly, I am not alone... but I guess I was luckier than many because I never had to cancel or change. Maybe some of the others who got caught were lulled into a false sense of security by believing that Flight Centre was a good old fashioned travel AGENT. I know that's what I thought, and it wasn't until I found out about the cancellation fees (I found out from a disgruntled customer, not from Flight Centre!) that I finally woke up to the fact that it no longer uses the word "agency" in its name. As I have said all along in this thread, agents traditionally take their commission from the people whom they represent... which, in the case of travel agents, surely means the airlines, cruise companies, insurance companies, etc. But they don't represent me! Other kinds of agents -- theatrical agents, real estate agents -- don't seek to take it from both sides! You can't blame the consumer for thinking that those rules still applied, as, thankfully, they still do for some of the REAL travel agents out there!