politics + engineering = epic fail.
Always has and always will.
Thing is. even if time wil show that direct would have been a better solution i can tell you with confidence that swapping is still a very very bad idea.
The Ares program is pretty well under way. and Ares was chosen back when both options were nothing more than half formed trade studies. perceived advantages with Ares made it win out back then. and we can spend ages arguing about that choice in retrospect. it's easy being wise after the fact. however. just like in most cases in life. once a choice is made one better stick to it until it's proven to be a detrimental one.
The reason for that is that a suboptimal decision is way better than none. especially when you need to move forward. I don't care if all that made Ares win over direct was a stupid coin toss. as long as a choice was made at a time when that choice was needed in order to move forward and design something that could work.

That is decision making 101 rule number one. when a decision is needed to stay afloat. make one. even if it might be a bad or non optimal one. since in order to avoid disaster you need to keep moving. always.
Nasa Needed to get something out of paper and onto the pad. and the decision makers knew it. so they chose in order to keep going. love it or hate it. but at least support going forward. because going back is not an option that should be done unless your path has been absolutely proven to be wrong.

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