I fly a fair amount as a passenger only but do not presume to comment on what whichever member of the cockpit crew may have done in the OP's case - I know my place! However, even though flying clearly falls more into the "Public Transport" model now than it did in my youth and is beset, justifiably or not, with the pre-boarding hassle of which others here make so much, I am with gcal. In my experience the low cost model is almost always unfairly criticised, perhaps sometimes by those who have an axe to grind, or maybe they don't pay their own full fares. I almost exclusively fly with the orange line and do so many, many times each year - as do my family. I am continually delighted by their efficiency, good sense and the personal charm of their staff. My daughter had to change aircraft last week at Stansted due to mechanical failure. She had the common sense to be delighted to be given the opportunity to use an aircraft which met requirements. There was an aircraft ready and a replacement crew to hand. Nothing got lost and she arrived here about ninety minutes late. Given that they spent a little time trying to fix things at first, I don't see how one could expect better. She tells me that, after a public groan, the passengers went with the flow with no fuss at all.
Mind you, I don't feel that I'm treated like cattle with that airline so perhaps nobody felt resentful in the slightest. I like low cost flying and my experience has been that I always get rather more than it says on the tin. New rules seem to have more or less sorted my only quibble which was with the inflation of the ticket price as one finalises the booking process but then I knew to expect it anyway.
I know I have strayed from the OP's line of thinking and I apologise for that but nearly everyone else already had wandered before me! I have no link to the airline other than as a perfectly happy frequent passenger - just like gcal, I suspect.