Tourist,
I appreciate that you don't like the F3 but please don't forget that you can only shoot down what's flown against you.
Our other airborne platforms (until the Typhoon came along and Shar excepted) did not have credible A-A capabilities. To that end we needed an A-A platform, rightly or wrongly that platform was the F3. It would probably have cost just as much to field a different platform which would have been stronger in some respects (almost certainly in airframe performance) but weaker in others (perhaps SA levels). In my experience, outside the visual arena, the F3 can compete with any (sub Raptor/Eagle) fighter and is certainly the match for a Hornet in the A-A environment.
Please don't let your distaste for a platform cloud the issue that a vital role needed to be performed. The crews of the F3 completed this task to the best of their, and their jet's, abilities and are rightly proud of their role and jet.
Regards,
Dash2