In fairness to Manchester Airport (and I am no apologist for them) but as far as T1 is concerned, it was concieved in the 1950's and openend in the 60's. It's concept is on the way to 60 years old. That long ago it was at the forefront of terminal design, since then times have changed and that is why you had the experience you had courtesy of stand 6 or 8.
I find it strange that Manchester has added to or subtracted from various bits of the building in order to satisfy the current rules, yet go abroad and no-one (especially the Spanish) gives a toss about keeping departing and arriving international pax apart. This is the reason as they had to divide the pier into segregated areas and them come up with a way of getting you into the arrivals channel. As for the lifts, well.......
In short the current ammendments appear to be well thought out, although I disagree with forcing everyone to walk through duty free to get to the gate. Terminal 3 is in a similar vain, having been the original A pier and them added to bit by bit. The 50+ stands are great, 41 to 48 leave a lot to be desired.
But as usual the management are looking at a short term fix, rather than the bigger picture. For me the sensible thing would be to extend T2, transfer all T1 work there, then flatten it and start again. Yes a trmemndous cost no doubt, but would leave a proper terminal for the 21st century, with a little future proofing it could lead the way and possibly even attract new business, as it is T1 is old and if it were human would be close to retirement. Perhaps it should!