I don't see anything confusing at all about the article or what the Canadian gov. is trying to do with their new flight restrictions, i.e. clearly they are trying to keep new strains of Covid from coming into our country from travellers. Whether it'll be effective or not is another question and I guess we'll find out soon enough. Why would "they" want to keep the less wealthy from flying? How would that help? That makes no sense to me. And I don't see how losing all this business in any way bails out the airlines. I would think just the opposite. In fact, huge layoffs ensued at Air Transat for one immediately after the announcement.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/air-transat-announces-temporary-layoffs-after-federal-travel-restrictions-1.5288578 As for those Canadians trying to buck the system by flying with a US carrier, as you point out Daniel, it does seem like a bothersome and quite expensive route to go.