No doubt. He could easily be a starter as a 5th year senior. The idea of sacrificing that in order to be the 9th man this year is insane.
And I don't even know about 9th man -- maybe 11th.
If we go with the generally accepted 8 as comprising the main rotation [Howard, Battle, Brissett, Dolezaj, Chukwu, Carey, Hughes, Sidibe] -- it isn't hard to envision that Buddy Boeheim would be the 9th man, due to his superlative outside shooting [being the coach's kid doesn't hurt his cause, either]. Heck, he might even play in the regular rotation, depending on how well [or poorly] we shoot the ball. Braswell is a human hyphen, but he might be the next guy in the rotation due to the lack of depth at forward.
Certainly, Washington might leapfrog either or both of those guys, but if backcourt depth is such that Boeheim might get squeezed out of regular PT, then the depth at that position suggests that HW would be lower in the pecking order than Braswell. I'd prefer to see him redshirt to space himself out eligibility wise, and not burn a year of eligibility as the 9th, 10th, or 11th man in what is shaping up as an 8 player rotation.
I also agree with your point above about it not being difficult to envision him being a quality upperclassman contributor. Not sure if he's as good as Griffin [I've compared him to Greg Monroe, in terms of how his career arc might go], but I could see him being a quality player down the road -- which is why I'd hate to see him squander a year. We'll see how it goes.