The PK queue yesterday was shambolic but that just sums up the state of the airline right now doesn't it. The reason it was so bad was that PIA reinstated a cancelled flight last minute and didn't give SAS time to have enough staff to check it in. The resulting mess could have been handled better but as TechProblem says, it's not exactly the airports fault.
I guess your perception of MAN can depend entirely on the time you travel through it. For someone who travels regularly through T3 around midday, they'll probably think it's the best airport in the world. Whereas a passenger travelling through T2 between 7 & 9 on a Monday morning is likely to think it's one of the worst.
With better planning 3-4 yrs ago, I agree that the situation would have been improved but peak periods will always occur no matter what airport you travel through and I think it's extremely difficult to compare MAN to other airports without seeing the bigger picture elsewhere.
Only last Monday I queued for around 30 minutes to get through security at Las Palmas airport in Gran Canaria. The airport was relatively busy, there were quite a few departures that afternoon hence a lot of passengers travelling through it and it was inevitable that there would be a backlog. Speaking to a couple in the departure lounge who travel there regularly, they told us that it was always busy on a Monday afternoon due to all the British charters. You could argue the same point that the airport could have done more to prevent queues occuring. But I believe it's something that you just have to accept. On another day or at a different time I probably wouldn't have queued for half as long but you don't see me coming on here slagging off the airport do you.