Perhaps it should have stated in the PSO T&C's a proportion of seats, lets say 50% for simple calculation should have been offered at a maximum of say £50 one-way (not scientific deliberately), as a way of stimulating the increased volumes on the route. This is the case on many UK & European PSO's.
In this way, the route should then be achieving 80%+ load factor which should arguably benefit the region a little more.