If your airport has CLEAR, you can avoid being treated like cattle.
I go on at least two trips per month that involve airlines. I live in the DC area; the airport I like the best is Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA). I park my car at a Metro station that has multi-day parking for a cheap price, and take the Metro train for a 12 minute ride to the airport station, which is connected by a pedestrian bridge to the terminal. The cheapest long term parking at DCA is $17 per day.
I paid for a 5 year membership to a government program called “Global Entry”; for $20 more than the “pre-check” program, I get expedited transit through the immigration checkpoints at US airports (such as Washington Dulles). As a part of Global Entry I get pre-check. As a Platinum Medallion on Delta, I got a discount on CLEAR. I figure I can get from the exit of the Metro station to the entrance of the Delta Sky Club in 7 minutes, including the time I require to go through the TSA checkpoint.
The TSA is more about “security theater” than about actually providing a fail safe security system. It has always seemed to me to be more about preventing “scalpers” from buying up the cheapest advance purchase airline tickets and then selling them to willing purchasers whose names don’t match those on the boarding passes. This is why the airlines got the federal government to take over airport security after 9-11-01.
Like I said, I don’t fly. I never have flown very much, so paying for extra privileges like quick check-in is out of the question for me. Glad you found a way out of being treated like a piece of meat, though!