I think in general AC is far too cheap with compensation when it is warranted, so I'm not surprised by the disappointing response you've gotten.
For your own sake I hope you have a good credit card to help with with travel hiccups when they inevitably occur (to everyone but me, it seems!)
There was one minor inaccuracy in your story. You didn't actually have an important meeting in HKG. If you can miss a meeting due to a two hour delay of one of your flights, it wasn't important. For actually important meetings your plans should include more than one chance of getting there on time.