What does ATC do that irks you?
Exist?
Seriously, though... when operating London-Edinburgh a few years back, we would often get turned 20 degrees off track to accommodate a BA 757 shuttle (we were in a 146). The shuttle wasn't going that much quicker than we were, and always wanted to be positioned for a 14 mile final, from which point it would slow down to 140 kts (visual or not) and take an eternity to get to the runway. We were more than happy to accept a five mile final (on a visual day), and keep our speed up to 250 kts until about 7 miles out. In other words, if radar had kept us inside the 757, we would never have slowed the shuttle down, but the shuttle ALWAYS extended our flight time by 3-4 minutes. For some arcane procedural reason that ATC could never satisfactorily explain, they refused to alter their "order of arrival". The friendly controllers that did help us out, apparently got bollocked for it.
BTW our crews made it a practice to visit with the tower and approach radar guys at least once a month, and they used to come jumpseating with us. Great way to learn each other's worlds.