The generals never wanted the A10 to begin with. It was forced on them. The airplane is not a high performance aircraft that general desire.
It is a work horse that does its job very well but is slow and ugly.
Funny thing is that it terrifies the enemy that is unlucky enough to fall under its gaze.
There’s an old story that an AF General used to say, “The A10 was designed around the nose gun, the F15 around the radar and the F16 around the ejection seat.”
The A10 is too simple, rugged, reliable, and cheap. The higher ups and defense contractors will never get rich off of that plane.