intuition

Neither did I. I didn't even think along these lines until reading that article. Now I am unsure what to think. My reasoning is:

a) SK clearly got away with removing shorthaul J and is doing "fine". SK is also a hub/spoke carrier and also must feed their CPH hub with a lot of connecting pax. It isn't a true apples-apples comparison, longhaul plays a smaller role in SK's network than AY's, but we all know that AY copies a lot from SK these days.
What Sk is doing on shorthaul can't even be described as economy-extra, it is a std econ pitch with no empty middle-seat and foodwise they are offering a tunnbrödsrulle (now in a stupid cube, but still basically no real food, just snacks)
Filling this "premium" cabin at 200€ each without spending a dime on pax must make every CEO jealous.

b) When Vuaramo is asked about first/econ-extra/econ/econ-basisc he responds without even mentioning the word business (or first for that matter). He also responds without a word about Finnair's offer.
To me, such a question is a perfect opportunity to talk about how your own airline sets itself apart from the competition, so why didn't he say something about that? In the past there have always been an assurance how Finnair offers something else, something extra, something that gives
Now he just said, without mentioning Finnair at all, airlines in europe will soon offer one marsuhäkki class, and at least one class above that. So the bar is set pretty low.

c) For the first time (I've ever seen) he acknowledged that longhaul J isn't sold to businessmen anymore. "We have a lot of tourists that we carry, not so much business people on many our routes. It looks like there’s a segment where the tourists want to be in business."
So has Finnair ever been able to target such a group without getting into low prices? And has Finnair any other way of reaching low prices besides unbundling?

d) Vauramo explicitly says he is anticipating some airlines starting to unbundle longhaul fares soon. Let's say that means SK (they have already responded to DY/D8 competition this way). Then you have 2 carriers based in scandinavia doing this. That is a pretty large part of AY main European market.
So is AY going to react by also unbundle something or are they going to compete by offering "quality"? Remember that QR is the hallmark and is taking their well-deserved bite of the OSL/ARN/CPH/HEL market.
Can AY be cheaper than DY? Can AY be better than QR? It is a no on both questions, but I reckon they will lean towards the former.