There were a lot of disappointed pilots who ended up as RIO’s. It would help if you had a pipeline for those people seperate from manned aircraft.
I flew drones in VN...but never was a pilot until I left the service. There are still people out there who would love to serve where they could fly UAVs.
Which is why they went to "navigators" for RIOs. The Navy had Naval Flight Officers, but they had no controls in the back of their F-4s or the F-14. The AF started out with pilots in the backseat, but soon figured that they could train dedicated backseaters more quickly and cheaply. They can do the same with drone pilots, whether officer, warrant, or NCO.
Heck they could use contractors. Maybe have the contractors or NCOs "fly" the birds into the target area, and then hand them off to military pilots for the actual strike missions. No need to hand pure recon drones off at all.