What a well-written synopsis. For every passenger that wants hand-delivered trays, you're inconveniencing four or more other passengers in having to do this without a cart. Furthermore, I'd venture that a majority of the people in the focus group who said that they would prefer you not use the cart would be the ones to disrupt the flow by wanting their tray taken before you'd finished bringing the others, be the ones to complain if you took someone else's tray before bringing theirs, want more wine now even though others have not been served their food as yet.
I want a hand-delivered tray, and then I want rapid service for bread, wine refills and to have my tray taken away when I want it taken away. To hell with whether others have gotten their food yet. Oh yeah, and I want a pony.
Cheers.
Why are you so quick to cast aspersions on the focus group participants? Are you suggesting AA went out of its way to recruit DYKWIA types? Those focus groups late last were held in the corner post cities and each city had multiple groups. In my particular group there wasn't a DYKWIA type at all and all of the participants were primarily business travelers with varying status and probably quite representative of AA's typical elite business traveler rather than a FT type.
The only off the mark opinions I can recall were represented by one fellow who thought the solution to AA's problems was to purchase new planes and another fellow whose on-board dining preference consisted of a boiled chicken breast and rice. All in all I would say the group consisted of a good cross section of AA's elites. None seemed terribly unreasonable or uninformed.