Well if the airport itself were unimportant, why bother with heating and glass ceiling-height windows and carpets? Just a big warehouse would suffice with doors exiting out to the aircraft ( no need for airbridges since passengers are only interested in the flight ).
Not unimportant, just a means to an end, if there was such a facility at BFS and it had a weekly flight to Canada or a range of direct US services then I would be happy enough
Why did Heathrow ever evolve beyond marquee tents and duckboards?
Because they found out that people pay for their creature comforts. (I understand that I can live without the razzle-dazzle but many others choose not to)
Airports have to attract customers, particularly if there is a local competitor that has flights to the same destinations.
It has to have the flights first, that is what my point is, the airport doesn't attract customers, the flights do and then the airport tries to make extra money off the people while they are waiting to board. Airports should focus first on route development otherwise that is the main factor in decreasing pax numbers not fusspots who lose their rag over something simple and then cut their own nose off to spite their face by refusing themselves a service in the future.
Passengers are required to be on premises two hours before a domestic flight; if the environment is not tolerable they will remember that in future. It won't be 90% of their future planning decisions but it will be a factor.
Checkin opens 2 hours before (domestic), lots of domestic/business pax leave it til the hour mark (specially now with the online checkin and hand luggage based travel (so becoming less of an issue)
I'll not be using Bristol or Luton airports willingly any time in the future so any flights to / from there are immediately irrelevant. Belfast City is wavering on the 'avoid' list ( security is a mess ). Leeds Bradford on several occasions didn't have the gate ready for arrival so another one to avoid.
Where else now... Heathrow is utter chaos so avoid that. London City and Stansted were always good experiences to I'll consider flights there. East Midlands was ropey but at least fairly comfortable.
You don't seem to be leaving yourself many so you can understand my thinking above....? It will be you who loses out in the long run by paying more from a different airport.
Seriously, if you have a bad experience at an airport, go through their complaints system, more than likely you get something extra (gift tokens etc) out of that and you highlight a problem they can work on!