I think you've articulated very well why I'm so uneasy about Asquith which I used not to be able to put my finger on. Despite Branson's, MOL and QR's ex-boss AAB's hubristic personality, you really got to give it to them that they've managed to deliver to some extent. VS and VA remains a pain in AA/BA/QF's butt, and you can't deny Ryanair can get you almost anywhere for cheap even as they laugh at you on their social media for being a cheapskate, or that QR's product is pretty decent (if everything goes well) and that AAB had turn QR from a two-aircraft operation to what it is today.

In comparison to the other upstart airline boss of this decade (Starlux's K Chang, who was the former boss at EVA before he was ousted by his step-brothers, and also happens to have an active A350 license and partakes in training his piloting crew, and now is the sole inheritor of his shipping/aviation magnate father's half a billion USD fortune), Asquith doesn't seem like he knows what he's doing. An airline with no AOC, one A380 (and the other ex-SQ leased plane legally unusable with the cabin product it has installed), and no slots at LGW, isn't really an airline.

Thing is, Asquith has an ego too big for his own good, and can't seem to get a handle of it, which is kinda very obvious from his random social media rants. Sure, I get that us naysayers aren't the nicest people to be dealing with, but honestly if you're running an A380 (with the economics not making any sense) you're putting yourself up as a laughing stock and I have no sympathy for him on that. He could have very well tried to do something like La Compagnie/L'Avion/Silverjet/OpenSkies and run a narrowbody with a really good product from this side of the Channel, or do a revival of CW LCY and people would be well-pleased, and he could have his entire vision of harkening back to a golden age of travel intact. But instead he must have that A380. So in that sense I think he deserves the reputation he has here. Personally, I think I would have been more supportive of him if he actually had his head (and ego) out of the clouds and if he was more grounded in reality.