You appear to be bitter because perhaps you may have not been in the forces when most of us have been involved in recent kinetic conflicts.
Not in the slightest, I just see it as the start of the slippy slidey slope where campaign medals etc start to get dished out to anyone regardless and their value and worth as an award is lost, they will simply become bling with no meaning.
Yes, RPA pilots play a vital role in the modern services, but then so do the rest of the forces out of theatre ( and in) and at the end of the day when they signed on the dotted line to become a RPA pilot they knew they would be based out of theatre and what the job entails, as did the rest of the RAF, to then try to change the goal posts probably comes under the bitter part of your quote above.
TS reworded it slightly, the Squaddie comment was an attempt to show that the medal to the average Soldier means a lot more to him as he has to go through more to earn it, I suppose that is why they tend to get them presented where as mine was more or less tossed to me in passing. I find the line "this is recognition for the efforts and hardships that many have been subjected to" strange, because surely everyone else involved is in exactly that same boat.
End of the day, you look a Squaddie in the eye who in some conflict past, present or future has suffered from it and fought long and hard to earn his medal and the right to wear it, then you tell him you got yours for sitting in a building in the UK safe and warm.... and see what his response is, I couldn't..
.