It's easy to fly more.
If you choose an airline without a hub at your local airport, you'll have to change planes to go most anywhere. More flights = more miles. Often, these trips will also be cheaper, as people are prepared to pay extra for nonstop flights.
Obviously it will mean more time on the road plus more opportunity for things to go wrong when delays happen. Is that worth it for the extra miles? It depends on you.
For example, I live about 220 miles from LHR. For most of my flights, I can either drive there (3.5 hours) and fly direct on BA or I can fly Skyteam via PRG/AMS/CDG from an airport that's under an hour's drive/train ride from home.
For me, the opportunity to amass an awful lot of miles and get to the desired elite tier without any status runs makes the decision a no brainer (even before factoring in the problems with LHR). If I lived in West London, that decision would have been harder to make.