Good Grief, Skipness! You're putting an awful lot of words into my mouth there! I think you'll find my postings don't say anything of the sort! Condescending comments? They might have been if I'd made them!
I use BMI myself on MAN-LHR. However, my destination on such occasions is LONDON. I gave up on the BA Shuttle after they cancelled on me once too often. "We suggest you make your way back home, Sir", they said. "I'm trying to," I replied, "I paid you to fly me there!"
I note also that there are destinations to which a LHR connection is the only practical option (HKG *not* being one of them). The MAN-LHR flights have a role to play servicing these.
Regarding some people who book MAN-LHR to connect onto routes which are better served by alternatives from MAN, I consider them "less well informed". You may call them "too dumb" if you wish, but I don't expect them to have an encyclopedic knowledge of world airline timetables so I'm a bit more forgiving. I am less forgiving towards certain professional travel agents who book unsuspecting passengers on these routes for reasons other than the customers' best interests. I refer to their victims as "mugs" - because they have effectively been mugged and usually don't even know it. However, I certainly won't criticize "unpatriotic" travelers who book a route which bypasses the hassles of LHR and represents the optimal routing for their own needs.
As for the business plans of BMI and Singapore Airlines, I never mentioned them. ("That'll be BMI then?" - errr, no!). If you wish to comment on them further, the discussion board is yours - man!
Cheers, SHED.