SWR haven't covered themselves in glory, giving the impression that they simply don't care about the West of England services.
How many passengers of Axminster/Honiton has simply decided enough is enough and will either drive towards Exeter using one of the P&R sites or use the Stagecoach bus and won't return?
About a week of travelling by road will likely persuade them to return to the train if and when the service returns to normal. Heavitree Road - the most direct route into the city centre - moves at a snail's pace for large parts of the day, and Pinhoe Road and Topsham Road aren't much better. It appears Exeter Central was the best used station in Devon in 2021-22 (albeit St Davids was previously ahead as far back as I can remember) despite offering a fraction of the destinations that St Davids does, and the local road network is likely a factor.
SWR's refusal to allow ticket acceptance from Dorchester looks very poor. At this time of year most trains don't appear to even be half full in standard class west of Poole, and overcrowding isn't generally a problem at the east end of the route AFAIK. I can accept that trying to run anything unexpected during an overtime ban is unlikely, and that First would be less than enthused at letting passengers on cheaper tickets join already busy Penzance - Paddington services (not that I necessarily agree, but I can see the argument), but refusing use of Dorchester trains just appears mean-spirited.
SWT tended to have a habit of splitting the service at Salisbury during times of disruption and running a 2 hourly service westwards. It didn't look great at the time but looks great compared to the frequent times that nothing is running now.
SERUG's news letter has an Axminster heat map for September 2023 showing the percentage of on-time services at each time of the day. It can be seen here, although it's near the end:
drive.google.com
It can be seen that the service consistently falls apart during the day - what is fairly reliable at 0800 has usually broken down by 1700. It really backs up Network Rail's view in the 2020 line study that the Axminster loop wasn't enough to run a resilient hourly service, never mind anything else, and more / longer loops are required.
Whilst it might be far more effective operationally to split the service into Exeter - Salisbury and Salisbury - London, since the former will only come into potential conflict with other services west of Exmouth Junction and east of Wilton Junction, politically it would be untenable. Suggesting anywhere should lose its London service tends to get the affected MPs rather riled up for some reason.
Just a case of persuading the Treasury to fund some more / longer loops really...