The attitude of CX many moons ago was what I liked.
The veterans among you will recall that many planes from Kai Tak left from remote ramps and us pax had to be bussed to them.
Not only were a lot of pax late to check in, they were late for the busses. Delays of 30 minutes or more were common so that some feckwit could get a bus on his own to the waiting plane.
Then CX introduced a 'zero-tolerance' policy. Anyone that arrived late for the last bus to the plane was kicked off the flight.
I remember one flight to Tokyo where three pax didn't make the last bus. The pilot (a Brit, judging by his accent) came on and apologised for the delay and noted that he'd missed his slot. 'But don't worry, we'll make good use of the extra time on the ground by offloading the missing passengers' baggage.'
It made me feel a little better.