The GR9 point was that it could deploy anywhere in the world, on a carrier, without tanker support, Tornado was replaced by Typhoon, which cannot land on a carrier, the F-35 was late and we have how many 8-15 usable for the next few years and lost one already.
Assuming that the deployment was still needed by the time the carrier moved the Harriers within range of the scene of hostilities!
I'll willingly concede that losing SHAR2 with Link 16 was a daft decision. But GR9 wasn't much cleverer than the Hunter in the A/A role against a capable enemy and was less capable than Tornado in A/G in its latter days, so the decision was sad but inevitable.