Sorry that could’ve been more clear. Everyone at the gate speaking on behalf of the airline and/or airport insisted all passengers stay at the gate because the

Sorry that could’ve been more clear. Everyone at the gate speaking on behalf of the airline and/or airport insisted all passengers stay at the gate because the flight would leave promptly as soon as the plane arrived, and repeatedly told us that they wouldn’t stay for any estimated time they had announced. They were framing it like the scenario you describe, but they held everyone there at the gate repeating this and revising the estimates for more than six hours IIRC. And I guess if they had flown out ahead of that last revised estimate it would’ve been too bad for me and everyone else who felt relieved to go somewhere else for the half hour or so we had to roam around, but thankfully they were just starting boarding when we all wandered back.