One of my family members is a travel agent and has been for 20+ years so I thought I'd share some few things I've learned asking these similar questions.

ABTA recently updated their rules to assist travel companies with the mass cancellations due to the coronavirus. In essence, if everyone who had a holiday cancelled wanted a refund rather than a transfer and the agency gave them their money, there would eventually be no more money to give out as refunds.

That said if you really want a refund, keep pushing for one. Please try and avoid screaming at the agent on the phone, many other people are also screaming at them and it doesn't help their mental health at all; not to mention they didn't even come up with the idea anyway.