It's the age-old question of what one wants from a show. The general public seem to love RIAT - presumably because there are lots of aerobatic teams. Some enthusiasts like it too, but there's a huge (and I do mean huge) group of people who no longer have any interest in the show. It's no loss to RIAT of course but for an awful lot of people there's no comparison between Waddington's line-up this year (which is admittedly pretty poor compared to the "good old days") and the RIAT show. Like a lot of people, I couldn't care less about an F-35, so the only aircraft worth a look would be the Su-22, therefore it's a no brainer.
Naturally it's a case of each to his own, but I'm trying to explain why the loss of Waddington's show is such a sad move for a lot of people. I think there might be a temptation to think that by putting their support behind RIAT, the RAF might imagine nobody would be too saddened by the loss of Waddington's show. My point is that this wouldn't be the case - there are thousands of people who haven't got the slightest interest in going to Fairford.