Note the explicit reference to it being a numbers trade-off rather than a cancellation exercise (although B2 & F22 unit prices show what happens when you trim numbers too far).
My point was that cancellation of F35C would actually hurt the USN more than most. No "new" aircraft entering service for twenty-odd years is a recipe for extinction, even in an age where the frame "performance" capability growth rate of both threat and own forces has lessened when compared to the 60s to 90s.