I think you've misunderstood me. I'm not saying there's no excuse for him not playing in general. Like I said, I may disagree, but I got why the likes of Rashford, Bruno, Garnacho, Antony, etc, were keeping him out of the team. I was only referring to the period where Forson was ahead of him in the pecking order.
The reasons given at the time didn't, and still don't, make sense to me. We know Amad is a better player at this moment in time, but, even leaving that aside, the supposed pros of Forson being ahead in the pecking order weren't valid in the first place. Some said it was because Amad doesn't work hard - he does. Some said it was because Amad wasn't impressing in training, which was the most valid argument, but we now know he was thanks to ten Hag praising his performances in training. Or, like you say here:
Amad is a central player. He always drifts inside when on the right, and has played plenty of games as a 10. The best part about his Sunderland stint was his link up play with Patrick Roberts as they would interchange as the 10 and RW with beautiful plays (alongside Hume at FB).
I don't think I'd agree that Forson played well and earned his minutes, myself. Nothing against the lad but he was just out of his depth. You mention his assist to Mainoo, and whilst I'm not turning my nose up at it, it was pretty basic. All in all, he just didn't show enough to me.
All that is fair! I've said before but, last season, if he messed up in possession, he sometimes threw a tantrum instead of tracking back, but it wasn't often. No excuses for that, but, in general, he did work very hard out of possession so the Forest bit didn't concern me that much. I forget who it was against, but, in one of our more recent games, he lost the ball but this time hounded the opposition back and won back possession for us.