Goldfish. Let me explain it this way. Despite the way the performance figures are worked out, I don't think there is a single pilot out there that likes the idea of having runway behind him/her during an intersection takeoff. The philosophy of an intersection take-off is to save unnecessary taxi time. I can't think if any other reasons that are more important than this. My logic tells me that if I am going to have to wait, I might as well use the useless time sitting with the parking brake on and taxi to the end of the runway.
On most B737's, once they are taxing, the thrust is brought back to idle, so they use no more fuel to taxi or to sit with the parking brake on. Because the ground idle thrust is quite high, one normally has to keep braking during taxi, and this is the unnecessary brake usage I was refering to. Again, the pilot is not overly concerned about using some brakes, as opposed to having runway behind him, if there is a delay.
It's funny your comment about your colleague getting rilled if a pilot asks for an intersection "if no delay". He obviously does not understand the workings from our side. JNB ATC seem to be very good in this regard and often will tell you there will be delay from the intersection and asks if one would like full length. It's got nothing to do with jumping the queue. It's about getting the aircraft into the air asap so that we can make our schedule. What the ATC's need to realise is that the companies are rostering crew so tightly now within Flight and Duty, together with short aircraft turnarounds, the crew are often under some pressure to try and make up time when delays occur. Often these delays snowball as well.
Another gripe that gets me is that particularly out of DUR, if one is ready for start a few minutes early, DUR tower won't give start (which I understand comes from JNB) until the schedule is met, unless they can accomodate one early. If the crew have a short turnaround in JNB, they then fly a fast climb out and cruise, and guess what, they arrive in JNB at the same time had they started up slightly early and flown at normal speeds. To me a couple of minutes before start surely is not critical. What about the long haul flights? JNB ATC doesn't have a say when an aircraft on a 12 hour flight pushes back on the other side of the world slightly early. Whilst I realise the importance of flow control, slots, CTOT's, AOBT's etc, it just hinders the operation when one is ready, doors are closed and "the rules say" type of mindset prevails.