Frustrating as it is, no-frills means 'no' to a lot of things. I think an apology of some description should at least be forthcoming from someone. As far as a free drink is concerned, even most charter airlines will not give free drinks out for anything 3hrs or less delayed, then it has to be their fault - eg. mechanical failure.
I don't know how much is being paid for your ticket, but to make it cheap as possible the no-frills/charter airlines do as many flights as possible with minimum turnarounds.
At the end of the day one just has to weigh up all the pros and cons.
If lowest possible cost is going to swing it, go no-frills. However if you want near 100% reliability it may be best to pay the extra if you really need to get somewhere and go BA.