For a weary passenger like me, I basically avoid air-travel in favor of virtual presence. If I have to travel far, I give myself extra time for unfamiliar airports, and choose less crowded timetables. I even prefer to an overnight hotel if there is a very long trip such as ATL-DUB//DUB-PER (Atlanta to Perth via DUB).
The passenger space is now unacceptable for most adult males who are not obese. Airlines have skirted the effect on health and on inability to evaculate passengers quickly by using only fit volunteers with no baggage to rehearse over and over to keep within the 90 second evacuation rule. Yet, 60%+ of US passengers are overweight, 30%+ are clinically obese, and many have mobility issues; in a real-world crisis, it would take many more minutes to evacuate.
The only hope on the horizon has been started by David Neeleman, the Brazilo-American co-founder of several upstart airlines (WestJet, JetBlue, Azul), and who launched a new airline, Breeze Airways, during the pandemic with a deliberate model of point-to-point medium city airports, using the most efficient aircraft of “regional jets”, i.e., the A220. The A220 not only has shorter runway needs, and fuel efficiency unrivalled in its sector, but it also has the WIDEST economy seat design in the world with its 3×2 seating configuration.

Singapore is a good example of where it can work out, QF’s F Lounge is a decent size for OWE/First pax, QR’s lounge is J/F cabin only, SQ separate SilverKris (J/F Pax) and Krisflyer Gold (Y pax with status). The BA lounge at SIN I hate, other than the Concorde Bar.

I’m Oneworld Emerald (via Qantas), but usually fly J (rather than F), so access to F lounges via status is something I value highly, and I doubt I’d bother pushing for it over Sapphire without that benefit.

To be fair (probably too fair) to Manchester was wholly owned by the councils of Greater Manchester who wouldn’t allow any substantial capital investment. It’s now part owned by a private company (the rest is still with the councils), and seems to be getting (some) investment (T2). However, until T1 and T3 are piles of rubble I personally don’t think they’ll lose the well deserved reputation for crapness.

The BA lounges in Heathrow to be the most crowded lounge I’ve ever seen on every trip to the UK in the last year, far more than any lounge in the US. The Qatar lounges in Doha are nice but of late have been overcrowded. Nicest one I’ve been in lately is the American lounge in Santiago, Chile.

I’m sorry if that’s true. I think it’s very difficult to not have “elitest” views when talking about spaces which were designed to be elite in some form. That doesn’t mean they were only for the “elite” whatever that means, but for people who either spend a lot or fly a lot. These spaces were never designed to be things of the people, by the people, for the people.