I'm sorry if I've confused the story, but I've taken dozens of Ryanair flights in the last couple of years (paid for with my own money, I hasten to add) and my point was you can (could?) get flights at the advertised price, without any surcharges.
They chose the obscure Electron not for the convenience of the majority of customers that's for sure.
Granted it's almost completely useless for anything else, but if you fly with them regularly it's worth getting an Electron card solely for booking with Ryanair. But their fees page says the fee-free Electron card is an 'offer', so I assume when an even more useless card turns up, they'll switch to that.
How can they surcharge every customer now for checkin without the surcharge being declared as part of the advertised price?
Presumably by only advertising the 'special offer' prices; the press release says they will "introduce a £5/5 online check-in fee per person, per flight, on new bookings, other than promotional fares (fares of Free, 1 and 5 will include web check-in on a free of charge basis)."
Hmmm... this can be read one of two ways - web check-in will be free even if you have hold baggage; or promotional fares won't be available if you have hold baggage. Given MoL's take on hold baggage, I wouldn't put it past them.
The website hasn't been updated yet, so only time will tell.