Thinking out loud...
The loss of the LGW service may most effect those on the Isles of Scilly, no longer a helicopter link and Lands End in the middle of nowhere, Plymouth gone, Newquay was the only way left to reach London or an International Airport with anything like a comprehensive list of destinations. Secondly why would Flybe want to run LGW through the low season and just lose more money on a route that is being chopped anyway, why not just drop it at the end of the Summer or restrict the frequency even further and save a few bob?
Or is there a deal where someone else will pick it up that is why they want the continuity.....?