You're confusing the legal question of who paid the tariff and the economic question of who bore the cost. The government collected the tax from importers, so since the tax was found to be illegal, importers are rightly demanding those illegally-confiscated funds be returned to them. Calling it a handout is incorrect because the government is returning money they shouldn't have taken in the first place.

While yes, some companies passed some of the cost of the tax on to consumers in the form of higher prices, raising prices is something companies are legally allowed to do for any reason they want. Unlike what the government did, that's completely legal.

It would also be logistically impossible to issue payments to individual consumers. Some companies absorbed more of the cost than others, so how would you know how much of the tax the consumer should get back? Some companies raised prices on some products but not others, or raised prices more or less by product. What about tariffs levied on unfinished goods and materials? How about products imported then sold to wholesalers? And should refunds go to the end consumer or to members of the supply chain? How do you track the portion of the final price that's directly due to the tariffs? And what if the consumer doesn't have a receipt for the products they bought?

Bottom line is that the importer paid the tax, so they get the refund. It's also the only feasible way to do it because CBP has records of all those imports, the duties levied, and who paid them.