I am a bit curious as to how you get so many policies before researching an Industrial-era tech? There are 6 policies per tree, and pre-Industrial era there are 8 trees. Two of those trees are mutually exclusive, meaning there are 6 exclusive trees.
6 * 6 = 36.
That's a lot of policies without researching an Industrial-era tech!
Not saying it's impossible, just saying I have never even come close. Perhaps you should research an Industrial-era tech to unlock the remaining 2 trees?
(I do agree you should be able to choose to just not take a policy and forfeit the points, though.)