Presumably that's to cover their liability for the flights not connecting properly? If you have a connection, you need flight 1 to arrive x minutes before flig

Presumably that's to cover their liability for the flights not connecting properly? If you have a connection, you need flight 1 to arrive x minutes before flight 2 departs. If that doesn't happen you start asking things of the airline (at cost to them). If you purchased the tickets separately, it was your fault that you missed the connecting flight.