Those people need to relax a little bit.
Just a generation ago they could have been driving down a remote road, in an unreliable car with no cell phones.
What would they do then?
Well they'd start walking and nobody on earth would know where they were.
Being stuck at an airport, you have something in your pocket you can use to inform everyone of what is going on, handle getting your pets taken care of, etc.
That said. I think people were understandably pretty pissed. I talked to a family that was taking their first vacation in 18 months. He only gets a handful of vacation days a year and due to cancellations their vacation has been ended. Just like that.
If I was them I'd be out of my skull. It'll probably be another full year before they get to try again.
If you traveling for work.. no big deal Company may be out some money, you may be delayed for a meeting, etc etc
If you are traveling for personal... these things are not as easy to just rescheduled, push back, or change. The family likely also lost money on reservation especially if it was a "vacation package", which likely use the same excuse as Southwest so screw the family out of their money.