I hear you. I had a ZRH-JFK-LAX-SEA where the flight times all lined up nicely, only getting about 30 minutes later than ZRH-JFK-SEA (because JFK-SEA has a monster layover if you're connecting from the European-JFK inbound banks).
Ooops, the 3 pm JFK-LAX on Saturdays is cancelled. Now I get into SEA at 2am and it's 19 hours between flights and layovers, or I can drop three-class transcon F for AA 738 F and be stuck at JFK for 7 hours (and only get in 2.5 hours earlier).
I think I'll just take a nap in a lie-flat seat and "tough" it out... but I feel your pain. Oh well.