Autoglide, I hear what you're saying and believe me, a lot of it I agree with myself. My concerns were regarding the amount of negative posts that seem to be replicating the same issues over and over and my comments were not individually aimed at your post alone.
I'm sure you have a greater knowledge of travel than myself and are therefore in a better situation to make comparisons. I have experienced quite a few airports around Europe and I do admit that some put MAN, and T1 in particular, to shame.
I have friends that work for MAG and without disclosing too much information, for whatever reason they are not in the best situation financially at the minute to make the necessary upgrades that I agree certain parts of the airport needs. The whole reason that retail development is being solely focused upon right now, is because it is one of the biggest sources of profit for the airport. Even with the present queues at security, income from retail is still at a significantly high level. It's the same with those awful gambling machines we all loathe. You'll be sorry to hear that the amount of slots and games around the airport is to be doubled by next summer. The reason is because of the amount of revenue that they bring to the airport.
From what I can gather, the long term plan is that monies coming in from more retail outlets and more gambling machines will help to finance much needed improvements around the airport such as leaking ceilings and patched up carpets. If the Fat Cats at the top didn't take so much for their own back pockets then maybe this is a situation that the airport wouldn't be facing. But unfortuantely through bad management, that's the mess that MAN is in. And those much needed improvements around the terminals that people love to moan about on Pprune, well all I'll say is don't hold your breath guys coz you might be in for a bit of a wait!