but a 700 nm radius around your house is still a big zone to explore...
700mm? That's 5.3 hours in my 182 and probably for passenger comfort is a two hop and closer to 6.3 hours including preflight, and fueling somewhere. (I can do 5.3 on a single fill but that is a long time to have your butt planted in the seats, even as comfy as they are.)
The 182 ain't exactly fast, but it's not exactly a trainer, either.
I think you're looking at 400-500nm as a much more reasonable number for regular hops with passengers unless you buy a purpose built traveling machine. (Obviously the 182 is kinda "multi-role" and can do some other things nominally that a more "speed only travel machine" can't do well.) That gets you down to three hours at 400nm and pushing four non-stop in a 182.
Now besides all that, to the meat of my thoughts on your post... those of us in "fly-over" states away from population densities like seen on the coasts... we really do need those two-hop flights to get to anywhere else "big and interesting" to passengers.
Denver being a prime example of this, you're a long haul from anywhere populated in the surrounding states. Vegas is an all day affair getting there and back. Houston or pretty much anywhere but northern Texas, same. Nebraska? Well, maybe Omaha/Lincoln. Wyoming? Cheyenne is close -- that's about it. New Mexico? Santa Fe and Albuquerque are reasonable day hops but one can only go there so often.
So, if I were "selling" GA on the grounds of it being someone's personal flying car, I'd need to get them into a 200 knot aircraft -- and that's not on the cheap end of the spectrum, nor something they're going to start flying in as a beginner, most likely. Operating costs are going to be high, besides acquisition costs.
I think a number of States have this problem. Six hours in a spam can one-way isn't going to woo anyone here to use a personal aircraft for travel when you're not talking the population density of the coastal areas. I've had that conversation with some fairly well off co-workers and such... "So where can you fly to?!"... they say excitedly when they find out I'm a pilot with my own airplane...
"Well, that depends on how fast you want to get there and what you want to see along the way..."
So the personal transportation pitch only works in some portions of the country. Usually what gets more interest here is that I tell them I can leave on my own timetable whenever I want, no baggage line, no TSA grope and grabfest, and no fees for an additional checked bag. I may take five or six hours getting somewhere but it's up to me when I do it. They respond "okay" to that until they hear they'll have to plunk down over $10,000 for the training and then buy an aircraft if they don't want rental hassles.
Oh and they'll still have to cancel flights sometimes for weather and drive anyway... now their interest level is completely gone unless they're the adventurous sort... if they are, they'll ask what interesting places I've been weathered into and if I caught a rental car or hitched a ride and saw anything interesting there.
Remember also that light GA also really isn't a "flying car", a better analogy for knowledge and skill level and total risk is more like "flying motorcycle" all things considered. Some people just do not have the risk tolerance for the real (not the overblown media story) accident rate and necessity to be "on your game" to do a long X-C with any sort of weather system that changes before reaching the destination. Which is pretty likely doing 500-700nm.
Then you shove everyone into an older Mooney to get the speed up and fuel burn down, and they really do feel like they rode there on a motorcycle. Heh.
Don't get me wrong, I love your concept for marketing some areas of the country, but in the wide open West... it's a bit harder of a sales pitch.
