The very existence of this thread means that there are some on here who clearly agree with you. And yet long before I ever became a railway employee I made plenty of visits to Blackpool and never encountered any such negativity. The crowd control doors were certainly different to just about anywhere else but they never got in the way of me having a pleasant trip. I even have photographs of trains taken from the platforms. Makes me wonder whether it's just an attitude thing, that maybe enthusiasts feel they have a "right to roam" at stations and don't take kindly to being restricted in some way. As for the "Blackpool system" being almost unique think how many times the Euston scrum has been discussed here! Those who are a little older (like me) may well remember that what happens at Euston used to be standard practice at many terminal stations and only changed when the open stations concept took hold. Clearly a decision was taken to most definitely not have the concept enacted at Blackpool and the reasons for that presumably are deemed to hold true to this day. I would also add that I have never had dealings with staff at Blackpool who could be described as surly: attitude (though not necessarily yours!) again perhaps...?
I think there’s a few different issues, the common factor just happening to be the infamous doors.
Firstly, from a purely enthusiast point of view, in actual fact I can’t say I had any difficulty getting what I wanted when I wanted to spend an hour on the platforms a few years back. In fact, I was able to hold quite normal and pleasant conversations with a number of staff there. It is rather concerning however that something which is second nature pretty much everywhere else should come to be viewed as some kind of special achievement - so this is the first frankly odd feature of the place. Having said that, despite having all the required permission granted (being railway staff myself may have helped), I was shouted at from afar by two separate cleaners, including being sworn at, and also by someone else from a car park, not sure if that person was railway staff or some kind of vagrant. Again, the whole experience simply gave the impression of a very odd outfit, completely detached from normal standards of basic human decency - and having to overcome obstacle after obstacle just to do something pretty simple and basic, achievable elsewhere, including in far more sensitive and important locations, without any of the silly nonsense, in a supposedly liberal country.
Viewing things from the viewpoint of a passenger, the station experience is little better. Again it’s the odd station out, and no matter which way one looks at it to any regular rail user it’s an unfamiliar, strange or at best outdated setup. Add in what are, at least outwardly, quite rude and unhelpful staff, especially by north-west England standards, and again one can’t help but form the impression the place is a bit of a freak show. I realise judging by what one reads on here the same may well apply to some of the station’s users.
All this offers a poor passenger experience from start to finish. Being penned in to a relatively small waiting area, devoid of facilities, and seemingly deliberately held back until as late as possible - again when the customer friendly policy found at virtually every other station, including busy London termini, is to be able to wait on the platform, probably on a seat, or even better on the train itself where one can settle down and prepare for the journey. We can read all manner of reasons why staff deem this to be impossible at Blackpool North, yet other places manage these things day in day out, using the same trains in some cases, and in many cases handling vastly greater numbers of people.
Maybe I’m getting the wrong vibes, and to be fair I’m hardly someone who has used the station apart from occasionally, however the vibes I pick up are of an unpleasant and run-down yet self-important and rather arrogant station, tucked away at the end of what is a comparatively backwater branch line, quite remote from managerial eyes, with staff stuck in a past era who are scared to join the real world simply because it’s outside their comfort zone. I’m not sure whether it’s depressing or just odd, but it certainly doesn’t feel like a pleasant place to be. Perhaps it’s just reflective of Blackpool as a whole, however one typically expects a visit to a seaside resort to be a happy pleasant experience, yet Blackpool North station simply makes one feel like having arrived at a freak show in my experience. I’m clearly not the only person to pick up this vibe.
I take the point about open stations, and yes I’m old enough to remember when stations had a ticket collector in a box. However wasn’t this more about ensuring people had a ticket before accessing platform areas? My memory is generally that once past the barrier it was quite possible to roam around, though presumably not at Blackpool North! One wonders if the origin of the Blackpool North setup lies in today’s station being the former excursion platforms, which presumably in those days would have been kept closed off?