[teampursuit]

Yes, AO (and other techniques like those described in the article) have allowed ground-based systems to out-resolve the Hubble as long as the seeing wasn't too bad on a given night.

Your point about cloudy nights is a good one! And, lest we forget, unless an observatory is at the equator, it can't see the whole sky. The Hubble can.

That said, I don't think a multi-billion dollar mission to keep the Hubble going is worth the money *now*. The ground-based systems are almost as good at a fraction of the cost as the OP points out. Twenty years ago this was not the case.