A bit late to the party here.
It sounds to me as thought the P1 passengers were perhaps rebooked by the SST. I can see why the OP's wife and colleagues were annoyed but with a delayed inbound connection the airline has to try to find a solution to get the passengers to their destination. It's IMHO totally unrealistic to expect a wait and see approach from the airline. I would have rung the SST the minute I knew that my inbound was delayed and given them my preferred options similar to the steps outlined above in one of the replies.
In office hours there's definitely more than one member of the SST on duty. After hours there is only one. My experiences with them in and out of hours (IRROPS and lost baggage) have been positive.
I don't see this experience as poor treatment of P1s. It may not have been the outcome they desired due to them actually just making it to the gate.
The SST should certainly have telephoned them to inform them what was happening and if that didn't happen then that's the element that's a service failure here.