As pilots you won't "see" the aircraft that delays you because in the terminal area everything is 3 miles in trail for landing day in and day out - it all looks the same from the terminal. I think the group that could answer your questions are the center controllers that impose the ground delays, speed restrictions, and spacing vectors for everyone due to en route congestion.
As for the second question, I haven't seen any airline press releases on this, do you have a reference or link to what you feel is misleading?