Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
In precise terms, LHR T5 is unique, but I think the short version of obitmic's reply is "you're going to end up with some system or other, and all systems have issues". The AA door close brutalism would not necessarily have helped the OP.
Yep, that's my core argument indeed - as well as answering the "conformance is absurd because it's so much worse than other systems" arguments by explaining that there was clearly a rationale behind it and whilst indeed it has a "cost" in the form of rigidity, it also has "advantages" compared to other systems. It does not mean it is better than everything else nor that it is necessarily happily generalisable, but I don't think it is a systematically flawed system either, the timings are not ridiculous or overly punishing (does anyone really want to argue that it is unnecessarily early to arrive at LHR 35 minutes before their flight?), and for the most part, the system seems to achieve what it is intended and designed to.