Its more than time for some fresh thinking re: Red Arrows. Watch the public at air shows and I think you will find they are not that interested. Too much ho-hum. They are no longer the must-wait-for climax of air shows (public usually watch at a distance from the car park).
They are principally for the pilots themselves, and I concede, that's a good reason to keep them going. I just doubt its enough. Certainly, the Reds were a distant second in public appeal when the Vulcan was flying back in the 80s and early 90s.
What evidence is there that youngsters want to become RAF pilots from watching the little trainers of the Red Arrows? Would there not be much more recruiting interest if they were front line jets?....... I do recall the USAF's Thunderbirds went to T-38 trainers for a while in the 70s and early 80s, but the public demanded a return to big, noisy, front line jets and so they switched back to F-16s.
You might not get a nifty, tight show, but with eight GR7s or GR4s you would surely get a much better demonstration of what the RAF was really all about.