In most situations I would agree with you, and ATC do a very good job. But in this situation I have to disagree with you. Ok, you can’t let aircraft get airborne in those circumstances, but diverting aircraft already on their way in is a step too far.
Aircraft don’t need ATC to fly, they don’t need ATC flight data, they don’t need their electronic strips. Last night, in those circumstances the only people that needed any of that were ATC. What they failed to realise was that those aircraft didn’t need ATC.
You imply that by losing their electronic strips the ATCOs suddenly lose all situational awareness, what happened to looking out of the window?
If if a pilot can’t navigate from the GROVE hold to the start of the 15 ILS without instantly crashing into another aircraft or falling out of the sky then one wonders what aviation has come to.
You say say that they called stop for a very good reason, I’m sure they did. However, those reasons had everything to do with ATC and nothing to do with safely flying an aircraft.