Yes, the market sucks, but its a lack of customers.
If the gamma islands become populated, a buyers market will form at each Alpha II island, because that will be the closet location for each gamma chain.
Sell orders should develop on the alpha I islands, because those will be an intermediate place for factional material, then haulers will close sell orders from say Green Alpha I and haul 2 islands to close buy orders on Blue Alpha II. As long as the buy/sell premium is acceptable.
A major trade hub, could form at any of the alpha islands, based on buy/sell pricing. If that post continually has lower sell prices and higher buy prices, it will be worth the haulers time to maybe go an extra couple island hops to get a better markup.
With all A I's connected, it's only 2 more hops from AII to the next AII, so gamm corps may just put buy orders up on all (3) factional Alpah II's, cutting out the transport premium.
Without suffcient buy orders to close, hauling won't be profitable.
So, while there are no market now, at least this new setup gives them the opportunity to develop (with more population of course). And (2) jumps vs (1) jump for new players isn't that much of a hardship, because again, their going to be able to move fairly quickly. And, a plug for Anni's better Alpha I highways would help that too.