Agree on most of your argument, TnB.
But it's quite an unfair comment to compare the infrastructure for a 40 year old (fuel hog) compared to a brand new class of VLA, of which only 2 examples are in service yet!
That's just as ridicolous as blaiming the missing civil airports when there were only Boeing Clipper flying boats around and were quickly exchanged by land-borne airliners after second world war.
Dani