PM,
It rather looks like supply and demand markets at work then ! EZY have their product, and because of your travel preferences, that was the only one available to you. Probably the fare to PMI or AGP for the same day might have been rather less. For the last 2 years, I have had an almost opposite example going to Funchal. NCL is 20 miles from my door, but it has been way more cost effective and convenient (ie flight time and frequency) to drive to Bristol to fly on EZY rather than take the once per week cramped, inconveniently timed and hugely expensive direct Thompson flight from NCL.
Earlier this year we had a long weekend in Switzerland. As you are probably aware, apart from the ski season, there are no directs from NCL, but we were tempted by a fare in the BA sale via LHR to ZRH (which was way more convenient than GVA (EZY and Jet2 destination) anyway). The whole BA process was way less aggro than EZY, and the 1.5/2hour stop in Terminal 5 was no big deal. So the via-hub may not be as bad as you think.