My point is that we don't know what a complete change of manned space policy will lead to.
We thought we knew in 1972, but we know what the results are, concerning the Shuttle.

And the CEV will most likely be less expensive to operate than the Shuttle, but more expensive than what we thought the Shuttle would be. Will that be politically acceptable? Perhaps...

The Soviets and now the Russians have kept using the same spacecraft while the US had the Apollo and later the Shuttle.
And nobody will disagree that for many reasons, the Soyuz is a lot safer than the Shuttle. The Russians kept their system and it paid off.

Raoul