I understand the safety net logic. What doesn't make sense about this is if he is in fact denied, for whatever weird reason, he would not stay in the US. It seems fruitless to just go back to F1 until what, forever? Until he dies? That's just stupid. Wouldn't he go back to his home country and apply for consular processing instead if that's an option? Or just give up I guess.
I suppose my question then really is does completing the intended F1 program and then not enrolling in further education, therefore no longer being in F1 - might that jeopardize the AOS? Will they look at his path and say "oh well even though you did the education you said you would, we feel you should have re-enrolled until we got around to your application", more or less.
And if so, all of those question I asked in my original post above apply.
No, he is not.