As of this week Emirates will be flying 3 x A380 per day DXB-MAN-DXB.
A large percentage are flying on to Oz. If offered a direct MAN-PER, I would jump at it. Am I in the minority? Dunno, but I suppose the same arguments against such long haul flights were put forward when it became possible to fly direct from UK to Hong-Kong without a Bahrain stopover.
Personally I think ULH will become more popular as time goes by and passengers get used to it and the ME cash cow stopover will become a thing of the past.