I don't understand how this scenario played out -- who is "everyone that insisted that everyone stay put"? Other passengers? Gate agents?
You can safely ignore other passengers, but if the gate agent tells you to stay put because the flight may board and leave at any time, you ought to stay within hearing distance of the gate.
Once my flight was delayed for a few hours due to an equipment problem, they told us to come back in 2 hours... then we found out that the flight crew timed out and they were bringing in another crew. The gate agents told everyone to stay at the gate because they were going to board as soon as the new crew was there. And indeed, 45 minutes later they announced we were boarding and 20 minutes after that they closed the doors and we departed... with a lot of empty seats (not sure if those people rebooked, or missed the flight)
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.
You can safely ignore other passengers, but if the gate agent tells you to stay put because the flight may board and leave at any time, you ought to stay within hearing distance of the gate.
Once my flight was delayed for a few hours due to an equipment problem, they told us to come back in 2 hours... then we found out that the flight crew timed out and they were bringing in another crew. The gate agents told everyone to stay at the gate because they were going to board as soon as the new crew was there. And indeed, 45 minutes later they announced we were boarding and 20 minutes after that they closed the doors and we departed... with a lot of empty seats (not sure if those people rebooked, or missed the flight)