Orca me old, we both remember those days in the same vein. You'd be forgiven for questioning the deployability of all the F-35 variants in the same breath. The contracted hardware is cumbersome. The follow on solution will, neigh Shall, be more man-portable and LM acknowledge this. Timeline for delivery of a solution was post-SDD and that is a moveable feast. But, what can be changed to make the best of the SDD deliverable has been looked at in depth. You don't need to hook the jet up to Ft Worth to conduct a turn-round quite like some people believe. It is scenario dependant and chimes back to what you want to do when deployed and for how long. Squirt of gas, onward to your mission? Stay and operate for a week, a month, longer? As you and I both know, everything has always hinged around that.
The jet has its own in-built hoists for weapon loading; just one such example of an efficiency. Others include the diagnostics on board.
NaB. The numbers (means) are always cooked to achieve the desired ends. Such was the case with GR9 vs GR4. Such will be the case with -C vs -B and EMALS. It should come as no surprise that the UK Govt are about to make a U-turn to STOVL and blame cost.