One of the articles said that you can't easily island-hop in the Ionian, like you can in the Cyclades. There are ferries but they start in late April and they might have different schedules from year to year.

Lefkada is an interesting case. There's an airport nearby, Aktion, but it doesn't connect from Athens. Instead it might connect from Corfu. If they're short-hop flights, then they're probably not flying A320s like Aegean?

Unless I extended to over 3 weeks, I would likely visit Corfu and maybe one other Ionian island, if I was going to still go to Rhodes, Crete and Santorini.