Yeah sure, the CEV could carry lots propellant and do an orbit adjust. That only means carrying propellant all the way from Mars to Earth or maybe all the the way from Earth to Mars and back again if they're not using in-situ propellant. The reason why one uses aerocapture is to avoid carrying propellant. The alternative to propellant and aerocapture is changing the vehicle's geometry to improve the lift/drag ratio and then use direct entry. Of course, an improved lift/drag ratio means creating a new vehicle with all the unpleasant development and testing costs. Which path is cheaper? That's the $64,000 question that NASA's managers are probably not equipped to answer. My attitude is developing new technology is a "good thing". Our present day hypersonic test facilities are semi-abandoned junk heaps. This is a good excuse to rebuild our ground test facilities and improve hypersonic technology beyond the Apollo-CM and Space Shuttle.

Gary