> I am in complete agreement that the extinction of A. mellifera is extremely unlikely, certainly any time soon

As I said, the honey bee as a species is not endangered, but some of sub-species definitely are. Along those lines:

In Europe honeybees sampled in nature reserves had genetic diversity and colony densities similar
to those sampled in agricultural landscapes, which suggests that the former are not wild but may have come
from managed hives. Other results also support this idea: putative wild bees were rare in our European
samples, and the mean estimated density of honeybee colonies on the continent closely resembled the reported
mean number of managed hives. Current densities of European honeybee populations are in the same range
as those found in the adverse climatic conditions of the Kalahari and Saharan deserts, which suggests that
beekeeping activities do not compensate for the loss of wild colonies. Our findings highlight the importance
of reconsidering the conservation status of honeybees in Europe and of regarding beekeeping not only as a
profitable business for producing honey, but also as an essential component of biodiversity conservation.

The highest colony densities were found in South Africa (>9 colonies/km2), whereas the lowest densities were found in northern Europe (<3 colonies/km2). Genetic diversity measures correlated positively with colony density

honeybees are “rescue pollinators” and thus able to compensate
for the decline of native pollinators in degraded
habitats (Aizen & Feinsinger 1994; Dick 2001), we suggest
that promoting beekeeping activities could compensate
for habitat loss and ensure adequate pollination of
wild plants and crops. In the light of severe declines
in beekeeping activities in various European countries
(COLOSS 2009), we recommend that beekeeping with
local subspecies should be encouraged to preserve native
genetic diversity and to reduce the transmission of
pathogens throughout the continent

Jaffe, Rodolfo, et al. "Estimating the density of honeybee colonies across their natural range to fill the gap in pollinator decline censuses." Conservation biology 24.2 (2010): 583-593.

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