don't they also then charge you the highest landing fee in Western Europe?
Not by a factor of 10. Gatwick, Luton, Stansted are ~ £500, as are others e.g. Frankfurt, Munich... OK, I am counting mandatory handling at ~ £400 there.
Maybe this holding issue was a particular ATCO, because I have never had a problem there. Well, their "mandatory handling" seems a complete waste of space, as is the need to get a "PPR number" from them before flying there, and I always tend to get lost in the myriad of complicated taxiways
but apart from that it is a good airport because it stays open fairly late into the evening and has an ILS, which is very rare in the south east.