Actually, the press release doesn't say that. It is very clear they will be losing gates. There is no way to demolish 18 gates and build 9 and somehow have the same number of gates. There will be fewer gates.
Measure it on a map. If you could magically walk out of Gate 24 in T2, walk across the Tarmac to the closest area of construction at T4, it is over 2000 feet (or about 0.4 miles). Unfortunately the walkway+walk through the terminal to the gate will be about 5000+ feet (about 1 mile). Not terrible, I realize. For comparison it is longer than the length of the terminal at DTW which is about 4800 feet. It will be a LOOOONG walk (or a slow ride on the moving sidewalks). And this will be Delta's glorious hub at JFK at a mere cost of almost $2 billion. JetBlue built T5 (ALL OF IT....ticketing, security, 27 gates, baggage claim) for less than half that.
Of the dozens of times I have gone through T2, I have never waited more than a minute or two to get to TSA when coming from the AirTrain. Right now through T4, it's 20 minutes on a good day.
Delta contributed very little to the project. But the project itself isn't as small as you think. It is more than just expanded gates and there will also be multiple phases and it isn't finished yet. After 2013, another phase will begin and T3 will be officially demolished by 2015.
Delta already had flights in T4, it just needs to be expanded to phase out T3.
The walkway will be large, but only needed for domestic to international connections and likely to be temporary.
My own gutt feeling is that T2 will eventually get knocked down after T4's expansion is compete.
T2 could then be used for further expansion of T1 perhaps or built as a new terminal altogether.
Remember, you had flights from Delta at T2, T3 and T4 with domestic and international at some terminals. This way all international flights will be at the T4 terminal and domestic will be over at T2 till eventually those are moved over to T4 as well.
Right now its 1/27/2012. When T4 is done lets say by October 2013 or so, we will have a clearer picture of the future.
I agree that the size of the connector is quite long, but guess what:
Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 are not connected to Terminal 4 right now with a connector.
So this connector is providing convenience that wasn't available with Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 because Delta was using all 3 terminals.
Now all Domestic will be in one terminal which is far more functional and all international in a far superior terminal along with the connector. I don't see how it isn't better.
Delta made the right move. And it will just get better as time goes on in the future.