I agree in theory. The connection has a lot more value than the trips themselves. You could locate a company in these regions and access the talent and funding pool of the larger cities, and so could the employees.

Unfortunately, many of these cities seem to already suffer from sprawl which might limit their potential. Going from SV through farmland just to eventually end at a tiny station, with little public transport and low rise buildings would be a little bit too ironic.

It is almost like it would make sense to build the stations between the towns, or at least at one end of them.