Originally Posted by
channa
You're not out of your mind, and you most definitely have seen it, as have I.
The website is pricing the long connection in your favor. Which is why if you can make the website display it, you can have it, but an agent can't do it without overriding it.
Everything I've read about layovers says that I'm right, viz., that a layover can legally be the next available flight, even if >4 hours, but that there are mysterious rules applied by the airlines about when this is permitted. Maybe everyone else is wrong about this, but I'm just relaying what almost every source says on the topic.