MancRy
Yes I fear that might be the case. There are plenty of interesting destinations (Riga, Sofia, etc) from MAN that I might use but that, sadly only fly two or three times a week. The chances of those days co-inciding with my trip are remote - maybe one of the sectors but who wants to buy 2 one way tickets?
Therefore you go via somewhere.
Such longer European routes are really only viable as a business route if there are around four to five flights a week and ditto Moscow.
You mention Prague and that illustrates the point since CSA fly upto 3x daily and that's a great, viable business schedule. They'll get virtually all the MAN-PRG business traffic (including mine!)
A braver BA would fly a A319 MAN to Moscow perhaps on a 'W' routing after a Shuttle flight but why would they, they'd much prefer to fly you to LHR for their convenience rather than yours.
One day one day...
Keep dreaming
VHF