I don't understand where all your wide bodied stands have gone at MAN..ok you have a couple of TOM 787, but similar number of TCX and MON A330s as few years ago. MON A300s gone (1 now at BHX) A few extra sched 330/77W
MAN probably has more regularly scheduled wide bodies now than it ever has, even if the tail variety has gone. Next summer is going to be even busier for wide-bodies and new flights, yet they are going to re-take the remotes for car parking again! (Another debate completely)
In terms of stands, the Jet2 parked up probably took up 7-is remote stands, we had a Saudi B747F that stayed longer than it should have, a Nas Air A320 was taking up one of the large aircraft remote stands awaiting its delivery flight today and the usual overnighting aircraft were already in.
That combined, with the diverts having no departure times, MAN had to keep its normal gates free for the morning rush, when SQ/EK/EY/DL/US and the likes were due. The Virgin A340 and BA B777 are still in MAN, so was a wise decision to leave stands free. There are not really any taxiways that could be used as parking as they only ones that could be closed without impacting the scheduled operation too much are the ones between 23L and 23R, and bussing across a live runway would probably leave the H&S brigade with a mild coronary!