<<I think the 'outrage' at LGW closing for snow clearance stems from 'how come other airports can stay open during snow clearance and still maintain operations?'.>>
I think you'll find that most of the LTMA airports were closed this morning. Heathrow has suffered dozens of cancellations, both inbound and outbound.
Having worked most of my life at Heathrow I know a little about the problems - and understand them. It's simply not feasible to have the airports operating normally in those weather conditions, given that we don't experience them that often. In my 31 years working with Heathrow traffric I saw snow on a handful of occasions and only once or twice was it serious.
I guess if we had a really bad heat wave and the tarmac started to melt there would also be "outrage"!!