Being a SARboy and a very long way from the sandy ****holes where battlefield helicopters are currently earning their keep - do any commanders actually want a helicopter than can lift 6 troops any more? It seems to me that the bigger the helo, the more flexibility it gives you and someone much better paid than me said that flexibility was the key to air power!.
The 847 capability came from the TOW system, not the Lynx's ability to deliver a pathetic number of troops - trooping is the Sea Kings role. In Sierra Leone it was a weapons platform not a troop carrier - has it ever delivered troops (other than in NI) in a front-line role? Moving the REME around for aircraft support is not an adequate justification for a new helicopter!
It is near to impossible to justify any role for the Lynx on the modern battlefield - it is not even a jack-of-all-trades - no matter how you equip it.
Front seater made some excellent comments - I think most in the front-line think it is about time the petty inter-service rivalry with each trying to justify its existence was ****canned and we merged into a truly joint force (since JHC seems to be anything but joint). Then the customer and the poor buggers paying the bills might get what they want and not what the staff officers and bean counters settle on as the best compromise that perpetuates all the outdated structures that we presently have obstructing the delivery of helicopter capability to the sharp end.