Whilst I know BA will never ever open a hub at MAN again, I think the main concensus is that a lot people just dont want to go down to Heathrow to catch their flight anymore.
At the end of the day, to those of us who have even the slightest bit of aviation knowledge, yes, BA is doing the same as everybody else by sending all MAN pax via their hub like everyone else. But, to the general British public, they will always question why BA do not offer long haul flights out of MAN, or GLA/EDI/NCL for that matter.
They will see that VS, the other UK long haul carrier does operate such flights out of MAN. Again, we know they operate on a different business rationale than LHR, but, the General public doesnt.
After reading another post on another forum this morning, I do think BA could make MAN a small holiday hub with Kuoni/BA holidays, similar to VS at MAN, but thats a different business model and arguement completely