Hubs work for long distance travel.

I am in favor of the inner core having the bulk of the transit options, at this point. But I think service should be included to destinations outside of that core. And you could provide all of those from the central hub while maintaining a grid-based service in the core. That way you can still provide service to the attractions and quality of life areas, while also maintaining good service in the inner core. I'm not talking about full service. Direct service to that destination from the core.

In short, you could get from a given point inside the core, to a given attraction in 2 stops. Take one bus to a connection point if the particular bus you get on does not go to the hub. Get on bus to hub. Get on a bus with direct service to the specific destination. You could even include multiple destinations in one run.