Hey, I'm with the OP: I hate extended delays after the airplane has been loaded. Part of it is that I remember the stories of Northwest pax being held for hours. I was on a flight today out of DEN on United - we pulled away from the gate about 20 feet and sat there for 30 minutes. No word from the flight deck as to why. People were fidgety throughout the cabin. Eventually we proceeded on our way and were actually on-time at the destination, but a little heads-up from the captain would have been appreciated. I wasn't freaked out enough to flag down a flight attendant or find someone who had headphones on, but it was a bit uncomfortable nonetheless.

I used to fly through ORD quite a bit. Some of my friends thought I was nuts wasting upgrade coupons on MCI-ORD. But I've been through enough of these ground holds in Chicago that I know there's a decent chance we'll be sitting somewhere on the tarmac for a while coming or going. Many, many times that has been a very well spent upgrade coupon.

To the original point, I don't think people get scared that something's wrong with the plane - I think they just want a little communication every now and then.