I think it's great and this did happen to me once before years ago when the CO operations facility in TX went down. The captain came to the gate and told us exactly what was happening, why we couldn't fly and provided updates.
Separate but related I was on an EWR-IAH flight last week and the Captain stood at the front of FC and personally welcomed us on the flight giving us brief details such as arrival time, etc. That was great! Passengers truly felt "welcome aboard".