No doubt poor local transit can be frustrating, but it's hard to take from a Boston perspective, when my experience with Versaille and the RER last time I was in Paris seemed like incredible transit relative to what we have here. Maybe once we have a true regional rail system, we'll start to have some conversations about that outer ring.
Los Angeles is doing this to a certain extent. The C-Line doesn't go anywhere near the core, instead having two fairly urban suburbs as the termini. The K-Line is similar in this regard, and when they build the Sepulveda corridor route, that will likewise be suburb to suburb, as it connects the San Fernando Valley* with Santa Monica.
* the Valley is technically within the city of Los Angeles, but it is very suburban compared to where most of the other rail lines go.