Personally I think it’s really important not to try and defend these fares.
It’s interesting how advance fares have changed over the years. I remember in the early years post privatisation they used to be primarily an incentive to draw people off the most heavily loaded services onto specific lighter loaded ones. That seemed to make perfect sense.
It does seem now the Advance fare, in various forms, has become almost the main form of long distance ticket, with significant savings over off peak returns on most routes, and at little notice.
It also, to my mind, helps DfT fudge the figures, so when someone makes a perfectly valid complaint about this kind of extortionate ticket on a railway upgraded with vast amounts of public money , they reply, “ah but look, you can get a London to glasgow advance for £30”. Not mentioning the need to travel at 1530, on a Tuesday, in January. The experience of most Glasgow to London travellers I speak to does not include £30 fares.
The public perception of the railway seems so negative, news stories like this are unhelpful. If Virgin really Make no money from this ticket, scrap it. The response from them seems dangerously close to “Ha, no one is stupid enough to buy that one.”