Yeah that model is likely why when I schedule direct flights months in advance I get my flight rescheduled for multi stop flights, often with absurdly short layovers of 15 minutes (who is going to mark that flight?).

It was a pain so much I stopped flying them. I’d buy a ticket and have to babysit it so that a flight from noon to 6pm didn’t morph over several changes into a multi stop marathon from 8am to 9pm…..