Glueball,you appear to be unfamiliar with the realities of the European "slot" system.
It would be a foolish captain(imho)who would not board for an on schedule departure even when faced with a slot delay of a few hours.I've lost count of the times we've done this in the IT world and been in a position ( "fully ready" )to nip out with a sudden improvement.When the tower calls and says you have a new slot in 10 minutes you are royally stuffed if the punters are all in the terminal.
As for the comfort thing,have you ever sat for two hours in the terminal at Heraklion or some other small airport with another ten planeloads of drunk punters and screaming kids? The luxury of a 26inch pitched charter seat with aircon and a glass of water while watching a video would get my vote.