Re parking
Maybe it is the advent of the lo-co's but over the past 20 years or so we, the paying public which support the airline industry have ceased to become passengers, but have become customers; and the lo-co's and the airports offer us as little as they can get away with.
The airports' returns for their parking charges, when considered against the cost of implementing them, must be marginal. It would be interesting to see what would happen if one of the airports broke the mould and set out reduced, minimal or free parking for drop offs/pick-ups.
But there again, these thick-skinned animals tend to hunt in packs...