This discussion is taking me back to the days of the early noughties when I worked as a travel agent for a big, independent agency in London. It was often cheaper to book a flight + hotel deal for clients on amany ong haul routes than flight only - if the customer didn't want the hotel, well who were we to say they had to stay there?! We handled very few, if any short haul bookings so I'm not sure if it was the same for short haul
In terms of my local airport (BHX) flight only prices on some routes this summer are beyond eye watering. I have used Jet2 a lot in the past for flight only and I've always been impressed with their service. I hope that if they are in fact going to focus on package bookings at the expense of seat only, that FR and EZY up the ante at BHX on Med / holiday routes to give us DIY holidaymakers more seat only choice without having to head off to other airports to get a decent deal.
I do agree with a previous poster, if you have the luxury of being able to book within a couple of weeks then you can sometimes get flight only bargains on TUI and LS as they become aware that package bookings have drifted off I got a return flight BHX-FNC last May for around 90£ return booking 3 weeks before when previously it had been over £200. Neither flight was completely full.