Lots of valid points, but not all true.....
>>It's got nothing to do with tail strikes<< - yes it does! That's one of the main concerns of the crew who will have to take it in there! Trials were carried out at Woodford (I think) and out of 5 approaches, only 2 were deemed acceptable. And that was on a good day.
>>the classic Dash 8 could have been designed for LCY --it is so runway capable and so docile<<
Mostly true. The 200 series operated pretty well out of there. The 300, on the other hand suffers greatly with performance on a hot day with calm winds, and I can't count the number of times I've left with min fuel, and had to wait for a departure off 10 instead of 28 due to performance.
>>As far as I remember, Lufthansa flew the -400 in for quite a few months with no problems<<
If it wasn't Lufthansa, then it was someone else who suffered from a number of tailstrikes there.