The airline route is almost a sickness in the industry, hats of to the people who really want it and get it. However the people who want to stay in GA will always be surrounded by people who only see GA as a stepping stone and look down the nose at it.
Also there are plenty of people who define themselves by what they fly, very sad indeed and this leads to wanting to get this annoying GA thing out of the way.
Don't justify yourself to them, as they will never understand you anyway.