Thanks, JF - I would not want to be on the other side of a STOVL debate with you.
I believe that it would have been better to focus on a real "Harrier replacement" oriented towards CAS, battlefield interdiction and air defense. (A STOVL equivalent of Gripen.) But back in the early 1990s, Lockheed sold the Marines and the Pentagon on the idea that they could get that, plus stealth, in an F-18C-sized package for less money, by combining it with the AF and Navy programs. Everyone bought into the deal and here we are...