Engines,
I believe there's a lot of truth in what you say. (It was a cheap shot, but there might be grains of truth in there too as those three reasons are the ones I've heard whinged / bantered about the most often) On the plus side though, the FAA can use this opportunity to learn a lot about mud-moving.
In my limited experience, the SHar boys did seem to focus very heavily on the air-air role and really only played at air-ground whereas there's quite a strong body of evidence to suggest that this might be a very dated way of looking at life (dare I say it, a Falklands-era view?). Take a peek over the wall at the USAF, USN, USMC, French, Canadians, Aussies etc and just about every other 'fighter' platform has focused their training and procurement towards the attack role for a long time now.
I would hope that the F-35 will be used to project air power over the beach, rather than just sitting on CAP over Mother, for which JFH and current Ops would seem to be the perfect place for the next generation of FAA pilots to learn their trade.
Regards,
Single Seat, Single Engine, The Only Way To Fly