The Air Force primary helo trainer is essentially a souped up UH-1H. While the addition of glass and its management is a bad thing in my opinion (primary helo training should be heavily focused on clock to map to ground type skills) and I think the exposure to actual touch down autos was valuable, the "simple" rotor system is a detriment. The under-slung, high inertia rotor system teaches bad habits. A young guy who can hover the Huey by shaking the crap out of the cyclic will make me vomit once you toss him into a Blackhawk.
The issue I see with something like the Lakota is the rigid rotor and breaking things when a young kid who can barely hover tries to set it down, and suddenly all those forces get instantly applied to the mast once the skids hit the ground and the fuselage can't move.
But it is what it is, there is no money for a new acquisition, the current trainers are apparently unsustainable and the Army has these "extra" aircraft hanging around. Maybe square peg round hole but it's probably cheaper given the frame of mind that they'd be operating the Lakota anyway, whether it's in a pilot training role or whatever the Guard does with them.
As to the concept that the Kiowa is better at supporting the troops than the Apache, harrumph, it's more complex than that.