The fuss is because British Airways is still regarded as the national carrier of Britain, it may be not as much in this country as it used to be but for many people around the world it is the first British carrier they will think of.
Several times BA's management has promised investment in the primary cities of Manchester and Birmingham and these two airports have built facilities to accommodate BA. A319,s were ordered to strengthen the two hubs but these were hijacked by LHR to rectify a strategy which had gone wrong at Heathrow. Since then wrong equipment and poor business decisions and not enough time have lead to the present situation.
Yes Manchester and Birmingham have a smaller premium market to tap into but surely they are able to sustain a few long haul routes each especially if they were developed as mini hubs.
I am sure that if Lufthansa's board and management were running British Airways its route structure would look very different especially given the slot constrains at Heathrow.