That's exactly what's going on. Incidentally that's one of the reasons USAF did their best to bury the promising AH-56 Cheyenne [0] back in the day, it was in direct competition with their own program that would later become the perennial A-10. [1]
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR-r6RR1nJM
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_AH-56_Cheyenne#Progra...
Warthog pilots are aging. It's tough to convince a good, young pilot to train for a frame on life support. It makes sense that the people who have to recruit, train and retain those new pilots would push back against having to do so.
We have a professional Air Force. It's not uncommon to see e.g. F-16 pilots "retire" into senior management roles. These are smart, ambitious people. If you want to keep it that way, you give them a say in the planes they fly.
Then, your ranking in the class drives when it's your turn to pick. Along with some other criteria. For example, some aircraft have min/max pilot height criteria because of the ejection seat. So some pilots do end up flying aircraft they didn't really want to fly.
Similarly, in the British Army, all soldiers go through basic training and then choose a particular military 'trade' (e.g. infantry, armour, artillery, etc). They receive trade-specific training before joining a relevant unit. Some regiments even have 'father and son' social events where an officer joined the same regiment that his father did.
The Royal Navy has similar career personal-choice progression routes for weapons officers, engineers, etc.
It's a cultural issue - the USAF want to move on to newer platforms - I think because they originally pitched the F-35 could replace it and now they want to show that can be the same. My vague understanding is also that at some point the Army even offered to run the A-10 instead if the USAF didn't want it, and then that got the USAF to dig their heels in half-way between wanting to get rid of it and not wanting anyone else to have it either, because they don't want the Army encroaching on their core skill of aviation.
Hence why they're now stuck in a conflicted limbo and nothing is happening.