This just hits it on the head how we are regarded...
If I may cautiously offer a civilian perspective.
It seems to me that many people in the military need to have it explained to them just how invisible they are. I mean nothing by this statement other than what it literally means; when something is your job and your life it seems globe-spanningly important, but the only people I know who are or were in the military are people I've met through this very forum and none of my friends know any military people nor are they specifically aware of what capabilities exist.
I say this now because I had to explain it to one of those people just a couple of days ago, but it seems to me that most of the UK population have
absolutely no idea what sort of cuts have been made to UK forces since Gulf 1. There is in general an impression that there's a large, capable fighting force out there, with only the haziest understanding of its extent; there is an assumption that it can handle what it needs to handle, without much understanding of what it can really do. I'm sure a lot of people would be unutterably horrified at the discovery that fast jet forces will be one-sixth of their pre-Gulf levels in a few years, but I suspect that as long as the Red Arrows and the marching bands exist, this will go entirely unremarked.
Therefore the fairly gentle reminder to the public from the military of just how bad things have become, which spawned this discussion, is highly appropriate and should be reinforced at every opportunity.
P