Bob
I truly understand your point. Problem is there isn't going to be a CAS specialist around 24/7. This especially so with certain types of ground ops.
I hate to sound like Rummy and say you go to war with the Air Force you have, not the one you want, but there's a reality to it that can't be denied.
There's advantages as well to the Bone doing CAS. Some far flung op in the dark continent, NEO or actionable info that puts boots on the ground in short order, the bone is overhead with no traditional AF CAS to be seen.
At this point we don't know that the same outcome would have differed with the A-10/other