Agreed. Fortunately our tickets are good for any one day in the 2011 season and we stopped when we realized everything was broken, but I feel bad for the people with specific day tickets or that entered the park only to learn nothing was working.
I don't think that the park has any publicly-available tickets that are good only a specific day. You saw exactly what I assumed there would be - prior notice of the closed attractions on signs outside the park - and decided to turn around as a result. Others certainly had the same opportunity, but were caught up in the hooplah of opening day. I don't blame them. Plus, it was the same last year, and the year before that, and likely will be the same next near. When the ride operator's first encounter with throughput, operations, mechanics, and rider organization is the park's opening day... You get exactly what you'd expect.
My mistake, I guess I'm not a park expert, I thought there were some specific day tickets. As for prior notice, I haven no idea what you're talking about, besides the fact you're putting words in my mouth. The "prior notice" I got was from people complaining through social media, the staff was incredibly useless.