You have to respect Bradie. She fought and clawed and scratched to get what she has gotten. On a personal level, it’s hard to root against her.
And your second paragraph outlines the dilemma; they know that at this point Bradie has reached her skating ceiling (ie she will be competitive at Worlds, Olympics, etc, but will be a long shot for the medals), but the chasing pack hasn’t been able to definitively push her out of the way.
The USFSA wouldn’t mind new faces getting a crack at it, but the changing of the guard that has been teased hasn’t occurred yet.
Now watch her win Nationals going away and defeating the youngers again. Same song, different verse. Haha