This type of thing clearly just doesn't tweak me the way that it tweaks some people. I'm not convinced you could end up with a great way of assigning airport codes today, even if we completely started fresh and we assumed no new airports are ever created. In fact, in a lot of cases the weird corner cases are often situations where you can ask "Would it have been better to stringently apply the rule, or to bend the rule for ease of use?". Does it makes sense for London to have a LON code? Hell yeah! I live in London, I far prefer being able to go "Hey, let's just assume I can go from any London airport", because I know that LGW and LHR serve different destinations, I can get to either fairly easily.
It's not maddening for anyone other than someone who wants simple consistent rules. But simple consistent rules isn't the aim, and even if it were the aim, you wouldn't achieve it without serious problems. Let's just What3Words all the airports shall we, that's consistent.
It's not maddening for anyone other than someone who wants simple consistent rules. But simple consistent rules isn't the aim, and even if it were the aim, you wouldn't achieve it without serious problems. Let's just What3Words all the airports shall we, that's consistent.