They were prioritizing getting planes to gates based on if the plane was picking up passengers and heading out again. Mine was the last flight of the day for my plane, so we were at the back of the line.
After 30 minutes, we finally had an opening and were moving... until another flight crew reminded the tower that they were reaching their FAA allowed hours and needed to be parked immediately. They took our spot, and then more planes came in that had to leave. Of course I know all of this because our pilot was pissed and would relay all of the info to us with a very sarcastic voice. He was supposed to be home by now too.
We ended up getting into our gate almost two hours after we landed. I normally live 30 minutes from the airport, and it took me another hour and a half to get home with the weather. The only reason we got in when we did is because the weather forced a shutdown of the airport, so we were literally the last flight to get parked at a gate, and only because there were no new flights coming in.
It's fun (after the fact) to think about these edge cases, how to keep the entire airspace running smoothly when one airport only has a single ground crew working, how to maximize efficiency to make sure the fewest number of people are delayed. Sucks to live through it though.