I'm not surprised to hear that, the East Midland advance fares to Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield are a lot more expensive than the WCML.
I ended up on one of those things when doing the Lake District coast Spoons and you're right about the push pull aspect. I didn't like it as much as you because I was travelling to Dumfries!
They were first introduced in 1980 so none of them are 40 yet but they are all over 30. The most important thing is that they were supposed to be a stopgap.