Comment by mannykannot

The airport, being, to no small extent, a shopping mall, has incentives to get you there early.

One thing that would tend to discourage frequent travelers from determining their optimal pre-flight margin would be to have somewhat arbitrary and frequently-changing security procedures and requirements. A second way to encourage long loitering times would be to under-staff vital functions such as Air Traffic Control.

EWR appears to have nailed these strategies.