"That's what you get when you ask an LO supersonic aircraft to have a minimum flying speed of zero."
Very true. I don't think anyone could have done much better, except perhaps the Macs design with a main-engine blocker and pop-out nozzles and a lift engine.
But nobody said in 1995: "Errrmmm... it's taken 30 years and the testing of all kinds of weird-looking aircraft to get where we can think of supersonic STOVL - and now we want LO as well?"
Or, quite possibly they did, and were told: "Don't bother your head about it, sonny, because it all has to do with stealth, and all you're cleared to know about that is Oooh-ee Oooh-ha-ha Ping Pang Walla Walla Wing Wang. Now
off."