If the only train was 6 hours before you needed to be there then you'd probably just deal with parking instead.
The point isn't that the timetable is the only reason to use a train, it's that without a good timetable it really doesn't matter what other advantages it offers and planners need to keep this in mind at all times.
A while ago a train line that's around a kilometre from my place reopened after 20 years and I wanted to use it, as it would outright teleport me to the city centre in 8 minutes having no stops in between(vs 20min by tram), but it appears to depart every 1,5h on average and isn't very compatible with commuting.
That could be great for a 9-5 job. Get the same train each day. Maybe grab dinner after work then get that 6pm train home.
I like those anonomolies. Like a place that seems far from the city (maybe even completely outside and in a other city!) but due to some quirk there is a way to get some weird train or bus there very quickly.
On the other hand, you are screwed when that one train gets cancelled, or when you miss it because you slept through your alarm clock. And because you can't control its schedule, you are on average 45 minutes early at your office.
For practical use one train every 30 minutes is what I would consider the bare minimum, and one train every 15 minutes is when I would be willing to rely on it for day-to-day use. I'm fine with low-frequency trains when I am going on holiday and will be spending the entire day traveling anyways, but it's just not good enough as daily transport.
The very last train from that station departs at 10:38pm, meaning it leaves the central station at 10:30pm, arriving to a city 53km away ten minutes before midnight.
You could almost have a nightlife with this, but somehow there's still a 1,5h gap during commuting hours.
Right. But that seems so basic, like saying without staff or a way to buy a ticket it wont be useful either.
The article is saying the product is the timetable. It is cool these days to say freakanomic sounding things like this. "The user is the product" etc.
But from my point of view I want to get A to B, plus other requirements (do I want to drink, how safe, how long, cost, if I miss it can I still go, luggage, pets, do I need to move the contents of my house etc.)