It is a common thing that takes place on every such forums with one poster condemning one establishment be it hotel, tour company etc. and another poster praising the same establishment. Unless we have multiple posts by different posters with majority in favour of one of the two view points an information seeker is left confused.
Here are my observations:
1. A continental breakfast is rolls, preserves, fruit/fruit juice and a beverage tea or coffee I guess. OP's breakfast had all except fruit/fruit juice. Quality of coffee is very subjective though. Here I would like to state that on our speed boat tour of Phi Phi island from Phuket we were pampered with delicious pineapples and melons.
2. A cancellation fee demanded in case of last minute pull out is fully justified. But Jax who is an experienced long time visitor says that over loading is a common thing in those parts. So if you are opting out because your safety is compromised you would not feel cancellation fee to be justified.
3. I am sort of newbie(pls note that earlier I used to write newbie now I am writting sort of newbie!!!) to this site and so I am not sure how much is the exposure, i.e how many Thai tour/travel companies look up this site on a regular basis. So as Steve says, we don't know whether the second Travel forum Guest is a genuine traveller or one from the travel company.
Let us hope we have some more posts here.