Indeed, and I think you’re quietly pointing at the nub of the problem:
if you like in a major city or sufficiently close to one of its public transport ‘spokes’,
and you want to travel to somewhere also covered in a similar manner (be that short- or long-distance) public transport is usually somewhere between great and acceptable. As soon as you fall outside that usability window, it often becomes close to unusable.
(One exception: local countryside bud services can sometimes be really valuable for local travel; but they often don’t link well with other public transport modalities, IME.)