It happens at every park. Maybe the bigger parks are more national news worthy, but I have seen national news run stories of regional rides getting stuck.
Although getting stuck is a misnomer....the rides are designed to ensure guest safety with all the sensors and are not actually stuck.
And to this point...can The Beast run with the exit gate ajar - sure it can - how many years did it operate without a sensor or magnetic gate there and could be open or unlocked and the ride still ran....
But safety is always a continuous improvement and thus the change to a magnetic exit in recent years, along with other safety features that most of the general public never see or here about.
Most of the GP fail to realize that safety is the utmost importance on these rides and because the rides are a closed system, any sensor that faults cause the ride to shut down, and the majority of the time there isn't a real risk to the guests. That is intentional. Sure they could program The Beast to still run when the exit gate opens, but why would you do that and run the what if risk?
Contrast that to a vehicle - your O2 sensor can come on, your check engine light can come on, you can open your door while in motion, the car will go without the seatbelt latched, etc. All of these are sensors that fault and throw up a warning light on your dashboard, but the car doesn't immediately slam the brakes on you while driving and come to a halt, but instead allows you to still drive it with those warnings in order to pull over to a safe place. At some point, depending on the severity of the issue, the car may came to a stop LOL, but it isn't as soon as the PLC throws a warning.
Could you imagine a warning light coming on in your vehicle on I-71 and the car immediately stops and the chaos that occurs with all the vehicles behind you trying to avoid you. That would be a worse scenario than letting you continue with a check engine light on.
Because a ride is a controlled environment, it can stop whenever the ride programs it to stop because it is a closed environment without having to worry about other outside entities being impacted by it. Sure it is a minor inconvenience to the guest, but it ensures that safety of the guests and employees are put first, along with the operational longevity of the ride because it isn't running hours on end with a "check engine" equivalent light on.