Perhaps the probes were meant to work against large crowds, and that the remaining functioning systems/power only had enough for one person. Perhaps the biology of those on the Enterprise weren’t compatible in the large group format or the distance from the probe to the ship to great. Since we’re making this all up, there’s no end to it.
I’ll posit an even more extreme set of in-universe events. The entire store of Kataan is in-universe fake. No one lived. No one died. The probe is a old culture’s version of Netflix and the Enterprise accidentally activated it. The flute in the probe is simply a mass market cheaply constructed souvenir for the customer consuming the experience. Silly humans thought it was real attributing meaning and experiencing loss for purely fictional characters in what is essentially a slightly different holosuite entertainment program.