Interesting. The case being made here is that the aircraft works quite well with conventional tanks and AAR, so why complicate things?
The underlying point may be that CFTs are most valuable for an aircraft that is otherwise short of pylons (F-16) or if the non-CFT configuration is draggy (Shornet). There may be other considerations - the USN seems most keen on the CFTs for Growler, not only because of performance but because underwing tanks mask the field of view of the jam pods.