Is there anyone on the planet, other than dedicated plane-spotters, who prefers flying between hubs to flying direct from where they are to where they want to be? Most just don't have that choice, because so many airlines have switched to a hub system to try to reduce costs.
That's exactly my point.
Hubs offer economies of scale, plain and simple, which translates into lower fares.
Yes of course most, maybe even all, pax would rather fly direct from A to B for the same fare as they currently pay to fly via C.
But the number of A-to-B routes where enough passengers are willing to pay a premium to fly direct, on the smaller aircraft that would have to be used, with their higher ASM costs, is a very small subset of all the possible A-to B routes that can be served via the hub.