Well, the "world's favourite airline" (hah!) was never that, however much they wanted to try and persuade the gullible public. What I see, apart from the race to the bottom, is a complacent, self-satisfied "national carrier" with a vastly inferior rewards programme, an over-complicated hierarchy of seating, a bevy of cold, remote cabin staff almost without exception, a check-in and baggage-drop system that simply doesn't work and habitually produces long queues and countless people missing flights.... What more can you ask for?

I fly to and from Rome fairly frequently on both BA and AZ. AZ is miles better than BA, despite inferior seat pitch.

So yes, why do people care so much about BA? Pure sentimentality, IMO.