1. if the door could not be repaired and was required to be accessible in flight due to safety equipment normally stored in one end of the bin. If you remove the door, the equipment is now not secured and if needed for flight safety, you don't go anywhere.
Ding ding ding. Now the rest of the story is told. While a flight would never be cancelled, or even delayed for more than minutes due to a standard broken overhead bin door being inop, the bins that hold emergency gear are not deferable via the MEL.
If you had shared that information (maybe you didn't have it, or even worse, NWA didn't explain the difference and allowed pax to think it was a standard door problem), then there would be no exaggereation surrounding the event, and I wouldn't have jumped in to, ummmm, 'defend' the airline in this case.
Like I stated in an above post, there is always more to a story than is shared, or there is a completely different side to it. On RBW, there is a recent thread about a 'bad' dive boat operation. The poster details the 'why', but it is from his perspective. Then, the other side of the story finally comes out after several pages of people taking the OP at face value. Thing is, the story was biased and off base.
Communication is the key. If NWA didn't communicate the problem sufficiently, then that was really stupid of them. Because, people come online to these types of boards and say, "My flight was delayed 5 hours and then cancelled due to a bin that wouldn't close." Instead, it should be, "A bin that secures safety critical items was broken and could not be deferred. Parts would have to come from another city, and due to the inavailability of a replacement aircraft, the flight was finally cancelled." Airlines are required to give the pax frequent status updates surrounding the cause of a delay via the 'Passenger Bill of Rights'. As to whether that information has to be accurate or not is up to the airline.