I've never quite understood the "you get what you pay for" argument, most recently cited a few posts above.
For the routes and dates I travel, legacy carriers are considerably more expensive than Ryanair (I know that this is not always the case; a month or so ago I spotted a Ryanair fare that was, at that time, more expensive than BA Club Europe).
For those who believe that "you get what you pay for", please explain what extra I'd receive for, say, paying twice as much to fly with a legacy carrier. I can think of at least one of the latter where, in my experience, you pay much more and get less.