If lockheed candidate was what you say, they would have lost the contest. That isn’t what the requirements were.
Look, We wanted to get a big part of the newly free world to not buy Russian (ex soviet) planes. The F-35 gave a lot of people a chance to get a first class plane when all they had previously had was Soviet crap.
Industrial policy drove the strategy. Weapons design makes the F-35 superior for its role, and keeps its buyers involved in the non-russian markets.
I understand all that, but I hope they start improving the US versions sooner rather than later.