No ridicule, you're right. I fly to aus maybe 8-10 times/year and over the last 24 months I've switched from MAN-LHR hopping on Qantas and getting to Sydney and quite often doing a SYD-MEL hop to suit my times which was a nightmare. Now I fly Qatar and they are amazing. MAN-DOH-MEL or DOH-SYD, fraction of the price and fraction of the hassle.
But there is clearly the need for more capacity and I would love to see a MAN-HKG rout but maybe there's not enough demand in that 135,000 pax to justify a route on the type of ac it needs to operate it, so for BA, ditching people MAN-LHR-HKG works more effective. Maybe BMI are missing something and this could be their long haul opportunities? I do have that BA is basically London Airways.