Why does travel have to be so hard?

So I flew into Austin yesterday morning, and apparently this is one difficult place to get to. To get here from Toronto, you basically have to connect through somewhere. I connected through Chicago. Others connected through such places as Dallas, Washington, and Denver. Connecting is always a risky proposition. To get technical, it's a study in probability, where the likelihood of one event happening (getting to your ultimate destination) is highly dependant on the outcome of previous events (your connecting flights). If a statistician is reading this and wants to propose a formula for fun, be my guest. Bonus marks if you can also somehow factor in the probability of your checked baggage arriving at your ultimate destination with you (I won't get into what it takes these days to ensure you can carry on your luggage and eliminate this particular element of probability altogether). Thankfully, my travel was actually right on schedule (including de-icing in Toronto, and Chicago) but others are reporting nightmare stories of delays, cancelled flights, and missing luggage. Why would anyone in their right minds make it so difficult to get here? It's really nice here! The weather (this time of year) is awesome, and the landscape is quite hilly for Texas, which makes for some beautiful views. I also hear the golf is some of the best in the world. If I was in charge of travel and tourism for this city, I'd make sure the airlines were working on more direct flights. Better yet, if I worked for an airline, I'd consider introducing more direct flights. I'm sure they would fill up. The only thing that would make this place better is if I brought my golf clubs, and my family with me.... Next time for sure.