MuffC,
You have far too much insight my friend! but well said anyway...
I agree that some sort of Joint chain will be required to get best use out of Apache or any AH force, and accept that 'Jointery' will be the way of the future in many arenas - but it will only work if the Army stop using 'Jointery' as a means of imposing their ethos on the other services. What works well for them does NOT work well for the RAF (and I imagine for RN / RM as well) - they need to understand this, and also that other services have the expertise they need to operate AH effectively.
I wouldn't pretend to know the first thing about soldiering, so why does the Army purport to be 'experts' in the field of aviation? Take advice from those in the know, and more importantly, listen to it! - drop the 'we're in charge, we'll do things our way' attitude. We are all on the same team, after all!