I'm local, hence I might be biased, and lack exper...

I'm local, hence I might be biased, and lack experience with transit. I do fly in and out of the airport rather often. It's not a huge airport like PEK or PVG, thus it is rather easy to make your way to various gates after security check (if you limit yourself to international flights and domestic flights flown by MF, CZ, and a few others; no experience with the new T4 that currently serve all other domestic flights).

Bathrooms are consistently and noticably cleaner than most airports in China and, so as to calibrate your expectations, than many airports in the US. Looking at ye, SFO. Haven't been to SeaTac for a while but XMN is probably still better than it. Other hardwares are similarly modern and well maintained.

It's been a while but the last time I flew int'l from XMN, security check staffs were able to say command words and pointing out prohibited things in English.