Not having a crew that can *legally* fly the plane at an outstation, they can't just conjure pilots and flight attendants out of thin air. Even if the crew was just deadheading (which it couldn't have, as they would be a plane short then), their commute time counts as air time for crew rest purposes.

There are several scenarios of what might have played out, but consider this:

Let's say flight A is the penultimate incoming flight of the day, flight B is the last incoming flight of the day, flight C is the first outgoing flight of the next day, flight D is the second outgoing flight of the next day.

- Crew to fly flight C came in on flight A, and they stay to sleep over
- Crew flying flight B either is rostered to rotate back the same night

Now, since flight A got cancelled, the airline is now short a plane and a crew for the next morning. They can either:

- Have crew of flight A fly flight B, cancel the return flight of flight B, delay flight C, so crew can get sufficient legally required rest.
- Have crew of flight A not fly, rotate flight B as planned, cancel flight C and reaccommodate passengers onto flight D (as that plane and crew just arrived, no rest issues)

There are many other variables at play here, especially when weather is involved, but none of them would be favourable for passengers, because, well... flights won't operate in bad weather.

Please be objective, and not offensive to the airline. It seems they couldn't have done anything better at that point. They reaccommodated you an a flight outside of Star Alliance, and honestly with LH, I would consider that a success.