Nobody outside Mormonism SHOULD.
LDS archeologists should avoid doing so, as well. I do not get giddy about archeological finds and attempt to use them to prove that the BoM is thus ‘proven.’
However, you are backpedaling. It doesn’t matter that there is 'plenty of evidence to the existence of Ashoka." for one thing, there wouldn’t be if all historical records of that era ere destroyed, as other groups have been, and it does not matter if there have been a lot of battles whose precise location has been located through modern archeology. If there remain well known battles that have NOT been so found (like Kalinga, for instance) when there is all the continuous written historical record one could ask for to help, then it is unfair and illogical for anybody to decide that because the BoM battles have not been found, that this 'lack of proof" means 'proof of lack."
All it means is that…they haven’t been found.
Along with a bunch of other such battlefields that have also not been found. The fact that some HAVE is encouraging. Perhaps, then, the BoM battlefields will also be found.
the problem, of course, is that even if they are, our critics will not accept the findings as such. They can’t. As long as there is even the smallest possibility that those fields or that archeology is NOT Book of Mormon based, non-Mormons will have to go with that possibility. To do otherwise would be…problematic.
I understand it. I even think it is proper. That doesn’t mean that the bias won’t be flippin’ obvious.