Here's a stab at it:

I always felt that EBO, EBAO, CA whatever you want to call it was the institutionalization of conducting warfare where every military or political leader can read and rehash a concept to look and sound like he has the answer to the future conduct of war.

Other than confusing the heck out of everybody in the room & battlefield, as seen during the Isreali-Hez war, the whole EB(A)O / CA debate was always sterile and somewhat to good to be true.

To me it seems that CA-EB(A)O was intended to codify what yesterday's military greats and statesmen (Alex the Great, Ceaser, Nap, Claus, Patton, Churchill) possessed either by shear luck of talent or what I always thought was the key CHARACTER.

Its not hard to agree with Gen. Mattis that such concepts might work within a closed system but the 'total' complexity of war demands for a specific type (or specific group) of people to conduct war.

Some people are born to be warriors some are not. I think EB(A)O was thought to be the holy grail, or at least the road to it, of conducting war where anyone could just open the book and follow it full circle to ultimate success on the battlefield.