Engines - Good points, but what I was thinking of was the original decision to build three versions around basically common requirements, with specific deltas on internal weapon size, range &c, and a common OML.
I don't think that the cost (in money and compromised performance) or risk of this approach were appreciated before 1996 - and at that point, all the CAIV in the world was only going to nibble at the ankles of the problem.
For instance, I don't think anyone thought that the JSF engine would weigh 1700 lb more than a brace of F414s, and be more expensive.
Now one might argue that the STOVL option is worth all this... but my point is that the cost was underestimated at the time.
And while the sacrifice of weight to manufacturabiliity in the 2002 design was there, the FW team had been firmly told to keep the cost down.
And the Viggie: fascinating machine, hated and feared by many including the pilots flying "escort" on a brute that would outrun them, leaving them to face the SA-2s that the NVs had aimed at the Viggie. Designed to launch at zero WOD, on the grounds that nuclear retailiation could not wait for the carrier to get moving.
And there was one version of the airplane on which the rear-ejected bomb worked well, as I can confirm from first-hand experience at the age of 8...
