Re your " Shattered Myth"...says who? The vertical climb was the Lightning's show stopper....I have vivid memories of Lightnings on APC detachments at RAF Luqa Malta..doing just that especially the T5 which was much lighter than the F6. As every aviation buff knows the only drawbacks the Lightning had was lack of endurance and armaments pack...power/speed were not.
As for Lightning versus F15 I did see a photo of an F!5 as seen through a Lightning gun sight .