John,

ASTs are not (IMO) necessarily "synonymous" with landouts. That is not the goal of the task. That said, ASTs equal landouts is the narrative that is being pushed in the U.S. leadership. This narrative is working well. It has almost succeeded. We are down to only 4 (and a brand new rule US rule "OUTLAWING" ASTs in Sports class).

ASTs (IMO) should be called on all good to great weather forecast days. No task can guarantee no landouts and we should not be trying to absolutely prevent all landouts.

If your narrative that "ASTs equal landouts" is accurate, shouldn't we also stop calling long MATs? Is that what you would like to see? Last I checked, US pilots are still strongly incentivized by US MAT rules to try and get to all of the assigned MAT turnpoint. Even if a weather issue is present.

Is this element of the (long) MAT causing too many landouts as well (just like ASTs)?

I think those are very fair questions.

;-)