The Mysteries of Airfare Pricing

I received the usual junk mail from Expedia.com about upcoming special airfare rates and there was this list:

From State College (SCE) to:
Atlanta (ATL) - $336.00
Boston (BOS) - $354.00
Denver (DEN) - $424.00
Atlantic City (ACY) - $680.00

My guess as to why flying to Atlantic City, which probably isn't more than 40 minutes by air, is so expensive may be because it's a direct flight. Or, they might do something inane like make you fly to Harrisburg, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia then hop on a connecting flight to Atlantic City. Which wouldn't surprise me.

I'm using frequent flyer miles for my next trip to St. Louis. Can't fly out of State College, need to drive to Pittsburgh, there's only two possible flights and they go to Atlanta, GA first before connecting to St. Louis.

When will airline companies get more consumer-friendly?