So, I've used the SkyBus since the 90's - possibly near when it started - and it used to be at the old bus station there (or iirc i used to stop outside it). That whole thing was Dodgy AF back in the day, specially in the dark (but I digress). So while the Southern Cross bus terminus is.... a concrete nightmare, it's a whole lot better than it used to be for Skybus.
Disappointed, but not surprised at the latest fare rise of course but it was always going to happen given Cost of Living etc. blah. Annoyed too as my 10 trip just finished. At least that has "only" gone up by $10 to 170, so $17 e.w. is.. more acceptable than $24ish one way.
Honestly though I have chanled my skybus habits. If I'm HLO or very lightly packed for just a couple of days, I catch the train to Broady and the 901 bus to Tulla. Yes, it takes prob 2.5x as long as skybus (I reckon 25min average for skybus vs say 50-70min on PT depending on the connection at Broady). Far cheaper of course and no real hassle. I wouldn't trust Broady late at night, but during the day it's fine. So I might do PT to get out to MEL (and it's about 10min walk from the busses at MEL to T2/T1) and if I return say any later than about 7 then I'll grab the skybus. If I have a larger bag then I'll prob just skybus it because it's more convenient. Point being that yep, pay for the convenience absolutely, but MEL is not lost for PT links - just a bit clumsy. - and after about 6pm the timings become not ery helpful also. However the myki fare cap makes it really attractive. and not a ridiculous option for a number of uses. I see it a bit like LHR - catch the stopping all stations Picc line on the tube (and everything associated with that) to the Heathrow express. MEL just needs its own "Elizabeth Line" - it could have been called the "Andrews Line" perhaps. Perhaps not.
As for the tran link - the constant issue here for seemingly decades - I blame both "sides" here - as someone noted earlier - both so stubborn. Understandable reasons (gov wants cheaper and quicker - overground, airport wants further out due to income from skybus, uber/taxi etc, and underground to not get int he way of carparks etc). What really cheeses me off, is the blame game and finger pointing between the two.
PER has a reasonable compromise with their (relatively huge) station that is over the road aq bit from T1/T2 there so it's a bit of a walk over the sky bridge thing and so on, but not horrendous by any means (T3/T4 is a slightly different issue of course). BNE works well too with an overground setup, but I think that has as much to do with the geography of the area than anything else that it works well and isn't getting too much in the way of anything else there.
Of course, VicGov being more broke than Bonza is another huge issue - plus more stubborness (or vote connecting) to push ahead with the SRL, or at l;east the first bit at endelsssly blow out costs in favour of the airport rail link (also massively blowing out cost to be fair). Priorities seem out of whack, but that could be said of many vic gov's of either politica party over the decades when it comes to this.
Anyway Skybus is a fine service and does the job pretty effectively imo.