The convenience of a 1-change option involving a change at a small-ish station such as Stafford, as compared to a 2-change option involving the hassle of the Underground, should not be underestimated.
I'll give you that, but XC is so dire...
Be interesting to watch how well it beds in and whether there will be further tweaks in another year.
Replying here instead of the thread about the Blackpools.
It depends how commuting goes, but I can see those Tring extras in the peaks becoming Bletchley or MKC extras. At the moment it seems that commuting is very much returning from places near London (i.e. Tring south) but much less so from further north e.g. Bletchley which seemed very quiet.
It is in some ways "back to the future" because it's not dissimilar to the old late-2000s Silverlink timetable which had xx23/xx53 fast Northampton, xx24/xx54 semifast MKC and xx04/xx34 Tring, with the peak extending the semifasts to Northampton, the Trings to Bletchley and extra Trings added at xx10/xx40.
I guess the slightly lower frequency from now will be compensated for by there being more 240m workings, as the new 730s can only be 120m (5 car) or 240m (10 car), the sweet spot of 160m (8 car) won't be available on 730 workings. Though the presentation on the timetable thread mentions 8-car, so are we looking, long term, at the Birmingham and Crewe services being 8.350 (12.350 peak for the Birminghams) and the MKC/Trings being 10.730 (5 off peak perhaps)?