Back to the original thread. I am old enough to remember when PIK's long, fog-free runway was vital for transatlantic flights; the slightest mist at LHR and they would all set down at PIK until it cleared. Now we have ILS. But there is an argument for maintaining the runway.
It is also clear that PIK has created a viable ecosystem of air-related technology businesses. These will always tend to cluster, not just so that they can poach each other's staff, but also so that they can, from time to time,use each other's specialist expertise. Such businesses, high skill, high wage, are vital to the economy and need to be encouraged and supported. They will need the continued existence of the runway.
However it is not clear that they need the continued existence of scheduled services and the terminal to support them.