OK, stupid question time (and I know there's already been a few of those).
If we go for the -C, then why would we need to spend copious amounts of fg hours practising landings? The key here is automation - even existing US carriers have an autoland capability - they just never use it. But we're culturally slowly coming round to the understanding that we are operating plenty of unstable jets that are unflyable if enough computers fail - so you build in redundancy. So, why should not every future F-35C carrier landing be 'hands-off'?
(I understand there'll be a need for deck handling practice - but you could achieve that with non-flyable replicas!)