Skeleton,
Do you recall when the current Afghanistan operation began? In the interim 5 years of waiting for the 'proper airhead' to be established there has been a frequent requirement for on-call CAS. The only strike aircraft that can operate from the airfields available even to this day are the Harrier and A-10. Do I have to join the dots for you, or can you see that your point actually supports the requirement for the Harrier?
FARPs aren't used in Afghanistan, but they were used by the AV8B very successfully in OIF and the Hornet bubbas were very jealous of the capability when the AAR was scarce - go read about them.
If you want to open another can of worms - consider a USN LHD equipped with 24 Amraam, JDAM & Litening capable AV8Bs (+1000 USMC grunts). Park that off the coast of anywhere you feel like and you have a very powerful tool of foreign policy at significantly lower cost than having to send a CVN and associated battle group.
If you read the aviation press at all, you will have seen that the USAF are considering trading in some F-35A models to get some of the -Bs. Do you think that might say something about the utility of STOVL as a concept - or do you know more than them?
Single Seat, Single Engine, The Only Way To Fly