Exactly. If anything, the global trend is away from discrete terminals toward mega-buildings, linked internally by people-movers if necessary. See Doha for example.
The problem at YYZ is that the international gates at both T1 and T3 are crammed into end-of-pier areas that are far, far too small. Similarly, the individual gate areas are also too small, perhaps because they were designed in an era when much international traffic to Toronto was on ~200-seat 767s. The average per aircraft today is probably close to double.
To make matters worse, the nature of long haul travel in North America is that it’s highly concentrated in the evening for timezone reasons. Sometimes there are 4-5 huge planes boarding simultaneously at adjacent gates. This is not the case in Europe, where international flights basically happen all day. But come to the T1 hammerhead at lunchtime and it’s very quiet, aside from a couple of departures to Asia.
The obvious long-term solution for T1 is to move transborder flights to a new pier, and let international take over the entire central area. But this will of course take years, and I'm not sure how much can be done to alleviate crowding within the current building envelope of T1. Getting rid of the luxury stores, which are nearly always empty, would be one idea I guess.
I don’t really have an opinion on the aesthetics of Vancouver airport (except that I find it very teal!). But what struck me during a recent connection there was how roomy the international concourse felt. Vast, even. There was no sense of being crammed in at all. In fact, if no one told you, you might think it was a bigger airport than YYZ - even though in reality it handles only about half the traffic.
My other pet peeve: we need to have actually useful retail in North American airports instead of this Hudson News nonsense. A pharmacy, a 7-11, a Uniqlo for when you realize you forgot to pack socks. Some Asian hubs are really good at this.
