I can't be the only one thinking this is a backdoor way of planning for an SLS escape route.

Launching Orion on Delta IV Heavy (or Vulcan) and then rendezvousing with a TLI stage in LEO would allow NASA to keep all the rest of the Artemis/Gateway plan, without any SLS required. https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/1262682010247667712

None of the funded Lander designs require SLS. None of the Gateway components requires SLS. Right now, SLS exists solely for Orion. If NASA can decouple Orion from SLS, then SLS has no reason to be.

It's been obvious for a long time that a two launch Orion plan (e.g. Orion on Delta Heavy and TLI stage on Falcon Heavy) would be cheaper, more sustainable, and ready quicker than SLS. It was even floated early in Bridenstine's tenure, but promptly shot down by the Senate.

But with the ongoing SLS delays (both having and not having to do with COVID), the first SLS will not be ready to fly until well after an election that may well remove its remaining Senate support.

IMHO, there's a decent chance EFT-1 will not be the last Delta Orion.