"Plenty of outfits are already working on short-hop suborbital reusable vehicles."

Really? Cool. Can you give more details on that- that would interesting to know more about.

"Where some real money could be made is transcontinental hops, but the delta-vee for those is a lot closer to orbital than it is to suborbital."

But even if it is, the re-entry should be less challenging than compared to from orbit, yes?

In terms being close to equal in terms of delta-v is there any ballpark number as to what distance a suborbital distance is equal to orbital.
It seems to me that the add speed and elevation from a mothership launch would be more significant in regards to suborbital than orbital [not even getting into, the bigger mothership needed]. And similarly using the earth spin should give bigger percentage to suborbital hop, so from the equator going westward should give significantly more distance than from other locations.