CX don't own the airport - they have to do the best they can with the gates allocated to them by the airport authority. And if you consider where the airport lounges are then no airline is going to prefer gates 25-33, or the 46-50, but someone has to use them. I do a lot of flying on CX and I reckon 8/10 long hauls I get are on 1-4, 61-70, 21-25.

And you shouldn't underestimate the number of lounge users on the short haul flights - there are huge numbers of Gold/Diamond card holding bankers running around the region from their base in HK.