FP 6/2 (starting points) -------> other FP (medium profit) --------> Gran Canaria/Boa Vista/Porto Novo (highest profit)
This brings life to two of the dead Freeports and ties into other trade routes so that you don't fly empty or with extremely low profit cargo to another station. It also allows you to transport the passengers as filler cargo at times.
This seems to be the consensus so far, both from Zoners and other erudite contributors.
I welcome any further comments.. would be nice to hear from the Trading Consortium and other Z-Indies on the matter. But, as it stands, the scenario above seems to be the most logical, and reasonable.
As to the conundrum of Freeport populations, we of necessity "suspend belief" in dozens of other ways daily to play this game we so love. Just one more incidence of "getting away with our Reality", it seems.