It does kind of suck when your options are:

A) Early flight that gets you to your destination 5 hours before hotel check-in, and requires getting up at 2:30am

B) Late flight that leaves at a convenient time, but means you waste an entire vacation day to arrive at 10pm

C) Convenient flight that costs 3x more than option A or B and suddenly eats up half your travel budget

A usually ends up being the most attractive option.