Problem one with the claim of those anonymous people supporting direct are Nasa engineers. as long as they remain in the shadows there can be no proof of this. trust requires openness. At least some of them should have stepped forward now that they are getting a public hearing.

whither Direct is better than Ares V can be debated. but direct as it is presented is overkill for crew only launches. that has to be addressed somehow if a change in direction from Ares I is aimed for. Ares V is pretty much as nebulous as any other proposed design at this stage since it's practically in the planning stages still. And important factors like the weigh of the lunar lander is still largely unknown.
The 5 seg SRB's are close to completion. so there is no reason not to finish up with Ares I and at least get some LEO capability going. I can see where swapping out the second stage engine to maybe a single SSME or something similar could be a prudent choice to save on money. those new J-2X engines are expensive to develop as well as time consuming.
And as far as i have understood it they are not needed for the Orion Block 1 variant that will ferry astronauts to the ISS. With the current political clime i doubt anything more will be done about the moon for a while. At least by the US. Not until some other nation comes close enough to make the politicos take notice.

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