MCO is really awful. Last year I had the misfortune of being on a MCO-RDU flight that had a rolling delay which eventually turned into just over six hours. The SC is old and often crowded and is not fun to spend an entire afternoon in. As the OP mentions the food options are really limited and the restaurants all close really early too as I learned when I tried to go down for dinner at 7:30. Also as the OP mentions the gate areas are too small. When you're at one of the last gates it's chaos.

My last trip there I had a room at the in terminal Hyatt Regency and after my hearing ended early I hung out in my room instead of at the SC. It was so much more pleasant.