More precisely, they were created to "cherry-pick" lucrative routes between large metro centers, chipping away at the legacies' margins while leaving them holding the bag with their hub-and spoke responsibilities to Y-class smaller communities (not counting certain niche carriers).

I think a justifiable piece of re-regulation would be to determine a minimum size for small markets which must be supported and then require all airlines doing business in a given state (or other geographic division) to serve ALL markets that meet the threshold.

No more cherry-picking the premium pax on the LAX-JFK...if you want to play, you have to support Podunk Falls and East BFE as well.

For markets smaller than the threshold, you could still serve them if you thought you could make a buck (and there's always EAS).