Tiger_mate,
First, lets set a few things straight. The tickets cost £12 for an adult, a £35 ticket would get a family of 2 adults and 3 kids in, do the maths and you'll find that's fairly reasonable, especially as all proceeds have gone to charity.
Moving on to your comments about the lineup, lets address statics first. 2 main concerns, first of which is runway. Cosford's is all of in the region of 4000 ft, not many RAF aircraft can fit on that, save helicopters and light aircraft. There was a tutor on display, which leaves the firefly which was not present. DHFS helicopters were present both flying and static, albeit primarily for transport and operational reasons. Second issue; where exactly do you intend to park said static displays? Cosford, you may have noticed, is not particularly large.
In terms of the flying lineup, you forgot the Harrier, Hawk and Jaguar which, together with the aforementionned GR4 and other aircraft that were displaying, make up all front line
fast jets we have. As for the others you mentioned, since when did the
vigilant go to war? Had you seen one fly (at 55kts, by volunteers NOT display pilots) you'd agree it is not airshow material. Similar things can be said for the BaE 146/ E3d etc, in fact to such an extent that none of these have display crews. A Nimrod was included but had to pull out 2 days before the show for operational reasons. The display Canberra PR9 has only got one engine and so unfortunately could not be there. The Band of the Royal Air force were in fact at Cosford.
As for British Airways, imagine the cost of flying a b737/747/A321 to Cosford, insuring for a display and crewing it. Now put that cost to a profit making organisation such as BA. Ask the punters if they really want to see a 737 flying down the runway and see what you get.
In terms of fulfilling its purpose of a family day out with a good variety of displaying aircraft, Cosford's display lineup was reasonable. In terms of satisfying an airliner spotter, maybe it was lacking.
Case rested.
