Just one point: many people at the airport seem to have an opinion about stand planning, but none of them have ever done anything about spending time with the stand planner as Rampboy has suggested. If they did this they would understand why they can't be parked on a front stand all the time and why they can't have stand 2 or stand 11 simply because it happens to be vacant when they arrive! There's a zillion other isues to be considered; ease of disembarkation in the walkway, passenger crossovers, coaches, length of ground time, location of the ramp crew's previous flight, you name it. When was the last time any aircraft had to hold on the taxiway waiting for a stand? I can't remember myself......
