After I checked in at JFK (Virgin) I had to take my baggage to a long X-Ray line. When finally at the end one simply drops one's bags and walks away. I asked the handler why I could not simply drop my bags at check-in, and have the conveyor there take them to some X-ray machine behind the scenes. He said they used to do it that way, and he had no idea why it was changed.
Why was it changed? It wastes a boatload of everyone's time.
Also, the subsequent line to get to the scanners at the gate was very long and badly managed, and the man checking passports appeared to be nearly innumerate and illiterate, slowing everyone down more as he tried to remember how many passports he had counted a few seconds previously.
X-Ray line