I experienced almost exactly the same thing on a SEA arrival a couple months ago; we made two or three circuits of the taxiways between T4 and T2 in the space of an hour (tried to get to one gate, had to move off the alley so another jet could get out, sat in the penalty box for awhile, repeated the cycle, and eventually parked at the gate adjacent to the one where we were initially scheduled to arrive ... luckily it was in the mid-20s (not far from the T2 shuttle bus), and luckily our jet to DCA had been in the same parade so the connection that was now down to 20 min turned out to actually be closer to 45 min

I think your question is pretty rhetorical ...