Everything about the airline industry is unrelentingly awful and hostile to consumers. These companies perfectly represent the disregard this economy has toward individual people. That they continue in this fashion, year after year, shows how completely the regulatory state has failed.
I absolutely HATE flying and avoid it as much as possible. However, if I'm going to a conference on the other side of the country I can't dedicate 6 days to travel. I'm 33 hours from LA for instance, that would equate to 3 days each way of 11 hours in the car each day. Realistically, it would be more like 8 total days of travel with 4 each way.
For work: It is literally my job to interact with peers at meetings and conferences. Hard to get there if I have a week of travel for every conference.
For pleasure: Because the destination is worth it. And the hassle isn't even that bad. Even without a tsa pre-check equivalent, security is mostly fine if you know what you are doing and prepare accordingly. Liquids baggy near the top of your bag. Have a jacket you can shove your phone and watch into. And so forth. Bring a book or some headphones to keep yourself entertained on the flight. Realize that you can slide your feet under your bag to greatly increase your effective legroom. And don't hesitate to walk to the restroom, even if just to stretch a bit.
And then I get to land somewhere interesting. Whether it is visiting friends a few states over or spending a week or three in a foreign country.
I fly about once a quarter and I still absolutely love even a mediocre experience. I'd say 95% of my flights are without any issues. It's been YEARS since a bad experience. I feel it's completely worth it to explore, visit friends, etc.
Overwhelmingly for me it has been work related. I think excluding a funeral and work I have flown only two round trips the past decade. I am at the airport about 6 or so times a year.
I have flown on airlines based and operating entirely in the 3rd world that were consistently better than Delta domestic in terms of how you were treated.
I fully understand the logic in play here. Been on enough flights out of ORD during the winter where pilots just don't give a fuck. If you go back to the gate, you will be grounded and nobody is leaving. If you stay on the tarmac "waiting" for as long as possible, there are good odds you get to take off. Pilots want to get out of the airport just as much as passengers do.
There need to be stronger safety regulations to prevent this from happening. But it is very easy to imagine a situation where the pilots didn't realize how bad it was getting in the cabin and figured "We'll be given the green light to taxi to a runway any second now"
I could have sworn there was a law that was passed a while back that limited the amount of time passengers could be stuck in a plane rather than return them to the airport.