That's true, but as has been noted before, Americans will do the right thing once they've done everything else, so who knows what their first inclination will be?
You think there could be a dispute, then.
Then I question your introductory comments about its being possibly counterproductive to take some of the actions the government has taken to have a presence there and about the notion of “use it or lose it” being something we should not be concerned with. I would argue that if the Americans can claim just on the notion of innocent passage, then we need to be there, as a country and as a government, exerting sovereignty over our land.