Things were very clear to me, the minute the young lady made the announcement, neglecting to tell passengers to stay in the gate area.
We all know slots can come forward, do we not ? A compromise would have been to announce boarding in say an hour, in good time to meet the projected slot. As it was, we missed the slot when it did come forward by 23 minutes, and were maybe lucky to get another slot, and hence lucky not to have been cancelled, especially since the crew faced a delayed start to a 7 hour round-trip to Malta. As it was, we sat on the aircraft for nearly two hours anyway before the 3 hour flight to Malta.
Suppose the pax had boarded at normal time, then yes, the wait aboard would not have been pleasing. But which would the passengers remember for longer, that wait, or, had the flight been cancelled, the loss of everyones trip ? Lesser of two evils, is it not ? Hence, I consider the boarding of the flight was mis-handled, and I would expect a professional handling agency/airline policy, whichever, to have done better on behalf of their Customers. I also take issue with saying you can never keep the SLF happy, as they are the Customers, who pay the wages.