LA
Firstly your enthusiasm aside you have absolutely no idea how airlines and airports operate.
Your arguments are way too simplistic and pure fantasy. I think you have an issue with Manchester in general which is clouding any rational thinking. Your arguments have been torn to pieces but you won't accept that. Fair enough you are entitled to your beliefs but CF will never happen and Yorkshire will not have an airport to fly the millions around the globe you seem to think it deserves.
As I have stated and others too LBA will continue to offer flights and I am sure passenger numbers and destinations will increase but the simple fact is there are not enough willing passengers to make anything more economically worthwhile. Just having 5 million living in your region does not mean airlines flying them all over the place on nice jets.
Airlines will go where they can get the most passengers and profit. That's Manchester not LBA and certainly not CF.
As for where I live or lived, well I don't live in Manchester and haven't for many years. Whether MAN does well or not does not affect me but what I can see is the massive importance it has for the whole of the North. LBA has a more local benefit and quite rightly so but anything more than that for Yorkshire won't happen. Airlines are what matters and they have shown what they want.