The point is that one needs to spend quite some time to arrive at the actual price rather than hitting a few buttons on the initial screen and having the real fare popping up. It can be quite tiring to check all different websites to find out comparative figures if they make it that troublesome to receive a fare quote.
That said, the recent increase in fees more than likely has to do with preparations to bow to EU pressure and change the way how fares are displayed on Ryanair's website. EU requires that the actual "fare" is shown early in the booking process, so Ryanair now tries to raise the fees for "voluntary extras" as the EU cannot demand them to be included in the "fare" (as not everybody will need/buy it). that said, I expect Ryanair to introduce even more such "extra" that will allow to make the "fare" appear very low.