More to
@nittany03's point, the T45 is now the hardest thing to land on the ship. At what point does proving you're able to land the T45 become less of a metric of future fleet performance? How do you tell a student that he can't fly a fighter because he can't fly manual passes at the ship in an underpowered plane that's pure stuck and rudder. From a practical standpoint, how does that prepare them for the fleet?
Everyone understands the E2 problem. It's an obvious one. The solution is going to be E2 guys CQ in the E2....period. Nothing else makes sense. Considering how much stick and rudder carry over there is from the T45, it's certainly doable. Not easy, but doable. If I can teach a student to land on the boat as a solo T45 pilot, then the E2 FRS can certainly teach them to do it with someone else in the plane. It just sounds scary because that's not what we've always done.
As far as the intangibles (situational awareness, boat admin, etc) I think people are vastly over qualifying a students level of CQ knowledge and proficiency. We teach them how to get gas and taxi to the cat. Turn left and leave your gear down if you're gonna trap again. Do a clearing turn if you wanna leave. Bingo if you're outta gas. Other than that, most studs have zero clue wtf is going on nor have the SA to do anything other than exactly what they've been told. That's the entire purpose behind the lead/safe overhead in the stack. Bring them to the ship, get them in the pattern, help them home in case of emergency. Studs are not required to possess any Case I/II/III knowledge at all until the FRS anyway so the argument that they will be behind the power curve in the FRS is sort of moot. Again, if I can teach them to fly manual stick and rudder passes at the ship in the T45 then they can certainly be taught how to do it in the FRS.
Lastly, and the most controversial, what happens if we kill someone at the boat in a T45? We've accepted a qualified, redundant system in the fleet that's incredibly forgiving with a huuuge safety margin but to get there you gotta do this really, really dangerous shit first? I don't think anyone is willing to let that happen. And before you argue that someone's lack of T45 experience may be what causes a mishap in a fleet jet, think really really hard about how much your own T45 experience shaped the type of pilot you ended up being (i.e., how many times in the FRS and the fleet did you ever say "but in the T45.....")
This whole argument sorta reminds me of some WWII old timers flying props who refused to wear helmets because it interfered with their ability to "listen to the engine".