First, ITA requires you to have an idea of the dates you'd be traveling; I just want to know what are the best fares filed.

Second, you have to choose round trip v multi-city before knowing which fares allow stopovers and which don't.

Third, ITA sorts by total price, EF by base fares; each has its utility.

Fourth, EF already provides all the info I want, but requires a few dozen queries. I have the reasonable desire to explore if this can be made a tad more efficient.

Most importantly, this is the kind of info many EF customers would be interested in: finding out fares and fare/routing/stopover rules before choosing dates and itinerary, instead of making a blind choice and checking availability.

I'd like to see if EF's user interface can be aligned with those needs.

I can certainly understand if this is not affordable. Not knowing their business details, I had no idea, but I do understand that everyone has their budget and bills.

However, the argument that something sort of similar though not quite the same is available at some free site elsewhere, which may have been in the process of diluting public access, makes no sense.