Ryan Air realizes that it pays to be nice

Ryanair is not so much competing with the big airlines as it is with the other budget airlines. I flew from Paris to Venice on Ryanair 10 years ago. The airports were out-of-the-way and inconveniently located, but everything went smoothly and I got to where I was going cheaply and efficiently. You have to add in the bus transfer costs at each end to arrive at the expense of flying with them. I think that was 20€.

Ryanair's traffic and profits have risen since it loosened some of its rules and tried to smile. It's the biggest airline in Europe by number of passengers and the older, trans-ocean carriers have to compete with them on shorter routes rather than vice-versa.
British Air, Lufthansa, etc. are charging for various services and cracking down on hand luggage too, playing catch-up.

I'm not sure what you are calling the "extremely nasty stuff". I have used them for years without a problem, and with huge money savings. They have never been nasty to me, since I follow their rules in exchange for a low ticket price. That is the key with every budget airline, not just Ryanair. And, unlike what a previous poster said, you do not have to necessarily add bus transportation costs to their ticket prices because of out of the way airports. In many places, they use the main airport. In other cases, that "out of the way" airport might be closer to where you want to be anyway. In short, that out of the way airport hassle doesn't always exist everywhere or for everyone.

For a start, the fact that for some years they deliberately hid the "no, I don't want to pay extra for your travel insurance" option in a pull-down menu of home countries at that ordering stage.

Perhaps it was before I started flying with them, but I have never know that to be hidden (small type, maybe). Still, that hardly qualifies as "extremely nasty".