The bottom line is the attack helicopter was invented for political not military reasons. The A10 is a far better ground attack aircraft, but the Air Force has never cared about that role and hates having designated ground support planes. The Army isn’t allowed to have fixed wing craft, so they did what they could with choppers.
The Cobra was created because fixed wing aircraft took 30 minutes to get to where they were needed when they were needed. The Cobra was forward stationed.
(I got that from the article.)
The Apache has dispatched many Haji’s to their reward at night. A-10’s don’t work at night.