RP,
Your tone suggests that you think that RIAT should have first call on aircraft for their static display and take precedence over any other Stn/Sqn events? RIAT had a VC10 flypast -did you also want a static or the 3-ship flypast? There is a significant difference between mounting a flypast which could be cancelled at any time if the aircraft were needed for tasking and losing an aircraft into a static park for 3 days. The 3-ship would have needed display approval for a public event and probably would have not looked that good anyway - as it would have had to go down the crowd line, unlike at the non-public event where it overflew the onlookers.
I'm told the party was great.