Yes, I can see that must have been hard. Imagine missing Goodwood, the British Grand Prix or OMG, the wife´s birthday. It´s a hard life in the Mob
All three were vastly more important to me than an uninspiring, boring and wholly predictable air show - which, in irony normally unnoticed by the military, featured very little flying and seldom any aircraft of interest on the static display.
Some of us work to live, I pity those who's life is work. So yes, OMG, my wife is more important to me than a bunch of frickin' aeroplanes.
Watching Richard 'The King' Petty thread a Plymouth Superbird up the hill at GW was worth the price of entry alone, the other 9 hours of joyous sights, sounds, and smells was icing on the cake.