No, the airplane was initially sold to operate from roadways and combat constructed landing areas much the same as one would operate a helo - only it was to provide a much faster and presumably deadlier response in the call for Close Air Support. Much of the USMC OPEVAL of the AV8B was based on such, and I've seen some of the demonstration films showing it.
An EAF is a bit better accommodation than what was in those videos - the attempt was made to show one could operate a Harrier in a similar manner to a helo...I've also witnessed that thinking change in the intervening years. In fact, most of the older "chosen" Marine Harrier jocks (left over from the AV8A days) were first Cobra pilots - I knew a few of them, too.
I was standing up Night Attack jets at MCAS Yuma during Dessert Storm and from what I gathered, where the Harrier really showed it's worth over a helo was in speed - not really in being based "close" (within a couple km or closer, in USMC parlance) of the FEBA...but granted, Kuwait is a pretty small space at 500 KCAS.
What returning guys deployed out of Yuma were telling me was that they were operating out of captured airfields in relative safety, and still eating a lot of sand. Blade erosion was a considerable issue. But then, the desert is it's own case...