Airline travel includes aspects and procedures not used on other form of travel. When you purchase a train ticket you can use it to go through the "traiside" are of the station and all the way to your seat. Ryanair has taken the approach of stripping commercial flying from all the elements that pax can do without (food, drink, hold baggage) thus offering very low fares for a great number of people. However a boarding pass is a necessary document to gain access to the seat you have paid so it should be included in fare much like the life jacket, additional fuel for an IFR approach, the presence of the cabin crew for the safety aspect etc.
So I really feel that cost cutting has gone too far but I think that as long as enough pax are flying on FR, our comments bear little weight to the company.