BEagle - With over 15,000 posts on PPRuNe, you must be the eminence grise of our Network. I therefore respect your point of view. However, eu01 has a point. Air travel has changed a lot since 2002. Our expectations and behaviour have too, as the type of service on offer has changed.
In the old days, an 'excursion return' fare was much cheaper than two singles, but required the pax to stay a Saturday night. People therefore moulded their behaviour so as to return from the same airport on the same airline and stay a Saturday night. You don't need to do that now. Instead, those who can do so mould their behaviour to avoid Fri/Sun evening travel and to take hand luggage only.
The fact that Hahn is miles from Frankfurt does not matter if they call it Hahn. It's only silly because Ryanair has called it Frankfurt. I recently flew to Torp. Not Oslo. Torp. I was going to the Norwegian town of Tonsberg. I flew to Torp because it is near Tonsberg. I didn't fly to Oslo because it is miles from Tonsberg. And because of the lo-cos, people can now choose to visit the Mosel region without having to go to Frankfurt.
Rome is, of course, the exception, with lo-cos using Ciampino (10 miles from the city) rather than Fiumicino (23 miles).
On the subject of transfers, I think a lot of people do it already. I do, anyway. I go into it with my eyes open, and fully realise that should I miss a connection, then an alternative flight is going to be quite expensive. That is a gamble I'm willing to take, and so far I've not had a problem.