Proud of yourself? You have no idea what my combat history or my subsequent contributions to combined arms have been, but you feel free to throw a gratuitous slap my way for being an older veteran. Well done. How much difference between you and the average young and snotty Hillary voter?
Now a little reality; "loitering" over the battlefield for 8 hours in a bomb truck is only possible in an entirely permissive environment. The real world rarely has situations like in Afghanistan where we can fly at medium and high altitude doing donuts, sipping coffee. We get involved with a serious enemy with serious anti-air systems and there will be scattered B1B parts over several acres. Waiting around for S-300P or an S-400 to find you has limited long-term career potential. At least when you're down low in the clutter, the big boys have a harder time finding you, the munitions reach the target faster, and the ground guys can see your smiling face.
The Marine Corps picked the F-35B as we always do to try to satisfy multiple requirements and to maximize interoperability. Can't say at this point that it was the best decision; we'll see. We never picked the A-10 because we didn't envision taking on the Warsaw Pact tanks en masse and the 'Hog wasn't really suited to carrier operations.
I am a big believer in technologies - I have developed several new systems myself (I am a Program Manager for advanced weapon systems) - but I also know that we can't entirely rely on technologies in battle because systems fail, usually at the worst time possible. When they fail, we need the ability to continue the mission manually with the Mark One eyeball, down low in the grass if the ground guys need it.
Right, Kid?
Regarding reality, nobody in no airplane is going to be performing CAS inside an S300 or S400 threat ring. So that argument is irrelevant. Now, lets assume, for whatever reason, your intrepid USMC CAS asset is forced down into the weeds. Exactly what weapon do you expect him to employ? Dumb bombs? Guess again. 20mm against armor? Pointless. And if you plan on designated his laser guided stuff, that's fine, but have you actually tried that? If so, you know he's not going to be in the weeds when he releases them. And he will be miles away from you when the bombs come of his airplane.
This is going to trigger you again, but the more you say the more you prove my original contention. The strongest advocates of aircraft like the A-10 on threads like this are people who have little or no current knowledge about what they are talking about.