I think it depends on gate agents. I ran into an odd situation with my family sometime ago. I got into DTW and my wife ran over to the connecting gate with our 4 month old daughter. The flight was still boarding. I had to wait to get the stroller, etc and catch up with her. Well, by the time I got there, the GA had closed the door despite she kept telling her that I am 2 gates away. It was sad because the delay was mechanical related that got us short on time on the connecting flight. The folks I met that night at the airport were more or less not interested in helping us. When we walked out and were waiting for the shuttle to the hotel, the captain who brought us to DTW walked by and I told him what happened. He told me that he worked for Pinnacle and that is just how Delta is and he hated it himself and couldn't wait to retire.

It is what it is, I tried to contact customer care but nothing happened. Sometimes passengers are minions infront of the ever powerful GAs. Thats how I took what happened to us.