AS wouldn’t simply be UX design because the UX penetrates into the core app code in several ways. You have multithreading for a smooth UI which has a huge impact on the core design. You have reporting meaningful errors to users which again requires good integration between the core and UI (typically, an error in the guts of the app code gets reported as some obscure or generic error). This would be a degree for someone intending to design and write code, not design UIs, create icons, etc.
The most simple breakdown: CS is for people writing code for other developers to use and AS is for people writing code for end users. In the old days a single person could do both because the UIs were so primitive and the target users were generally computer-savvy (or were specialized users that could spend the time to learn complex UIs). That’s not the case anymore. Software is used by everyone all the time.
I guess my basic reply to those who think an AS degree isn’t necessary would be: why do we need so many types of engineering degrees (Electrical, Mechanical, Civil, etc.)? They all have to learn the basic tools (calc, physics, etc.) and then add on specialization. Well, engineers need that separation because each engineering field is too big. If all we had was an “Engineering” degree then students would only dabble in each of the existing areas rather than thoroughly explore one area. They would be forced to learn their specialization on the job and probably do a crappy job at it.
Is anyone happy with the state of software these days???