Couldn’t have put it better myself, Runway30.
Except that I am not sure what that business model was. Was it "to profitably fly smaller aeroplanes on routes (or on routes that require more frequency) that cannot be flown profitably by airlines who operate bigger aeroplanes." That is reasonable but they couldn't do it profitably. And then we have had
"To fly aeroplanes we shouldn't have on routes because no one will take them off our hands"
"To try to replace our franchise partners on routes they know so much better than us"
Any one got a better idea of what they were trying to do.