Couldn't disagree more. This shouldn't be about the hole and how to fix it, temporarily or permanently. Instead this should serve as an example for the entire industry how not to deal with pax concerns regarding safety.
As has been posted above it should be absolutely unacceptable to disregard any potentially important safety related input from anyone (grounds staff including cleaners, pax etc).
Everyone in the industry needs to learn that lesson. Now, I realize that I am probably (hopefully) preaching to the choir here but we can all do our part by sharing stories like this one with people who work with and around us.