The NYC airports are strange because certain terminals are fantastic at all three airports, and other are glorified Greyhound stations.
...Or you could walk 10 feet to terminal A and B and get drenched by the gallon of water leaking out of the ceiling
I read this week that each of JFK's terminals is run as it's own separate entity. If your flight goes to Terminal 4, and Terminal 4 has some issue or is overloaded, you can't go to any other terminal because they don't talk to each-other.