Not really..I mean, you like oil right? But other than just oil, these are natives that have no other way to get around due to the environment. It's not like the 4-corners area of the US where you have the biggest Native American reservation in the US, yet it pales in comparison to Alaska native villages and the distances they are spread apart. To a significant extent, the US government helped encourage and sustained a lot of these village outposts with dozens of AFB installations, early warning radars, communications relays, and other sorts of stuff, not to mention most of the villages already existed for the most part, unlike most cities that have been build after "discovery" by Europe. Many of the "EAS" contracts in AK are for "mail service" as well, because it's the only way to get mail out there. The planes usually do double or triple duty, fulfilling many other roles (with the same plane)-cargo, passengers, combination, etc. These aren't people that have the option of easily just "moving", as it's large families, native communities, people that sustain themselves on things that you'd never consider putting in your mouth, etc.

I would say it's very much not the same thing, we have like 3 highways, for an area the same size as half the lower 48 states roughly. Nowhere near the road infrastructure. The reasons why AK needs EAS are exactly the reasons the lower 48 largely doesn't need it. They try to apply the same criteria, but it's a totally different situation. Whether the Federal or State government pays for EAS here, I don't really care, but this ain't Kansas, and you'd likely die trying to get to a village by other means. We aren't going to tell people in the lower 48 to move to cities, and it's probably not appropriate to say that anywhere, but there are certain realities that have to be realized.

If there's really any place in the lower US that is more than 2hrs away from a hub by car, I'd be for ensuring that they have adequate emergency medical service, although im sure health corporations find ways to make their helicopter operations profitable, by using them and charging...