Yes, I recall reading your story. I suppose it is a bit different at a land border. They sort of just turn you around. When you fly in, there is a lot more palaver. They need to take you to the airport detention centre, have an IO of maybe colonel rank stamp your passport, co-ordinate with the airline, have your baggage collected and re-routed because you are not allowed to collect it. It has the appearance of an official process, but nothing is noted in the computer.
As @Rob Browder said, the goal is to inconvenience you and make you incur extra expense so that the cost of safe entry suddenly changes from being unnecessary to being an unmissable bargain.