León isn’t exactly what I would call a major city; it has a regional significance for sure, but just between 100-200k inhabitants, and Madrid isn’t even that close. Four trains per day is less than ideal, though, you’re right there. In my opinion, the situation is much worse in more peripheral areas of the country. For example, trains between highly important regional hubs like from Sevilla to Valencia or even Málaga take huge detours and operate surprisingly infrequently.
well, one could opt for seamless rail-to-ferry interchanges for these specific cases
in the case of Finland, a rail-on-ferry option could at least be considered, that country has a rail network of its own, after all