"somebody" at the DOT&E finally discovered the "rearward" visibility might not be up to F-16 standards?
Was "up to F-16 rearward vis standard" in the requirements documnet?
I find the use of the word "discovered" suspect.
I will strongly suggest to you that this issue was raised years ago during CDR (at the latest) and the engineering and funcitonal issues and compromises were both accepted by the program office.
I remember over 30 years ago all of the talk about how new and magic the F-18 was going to be compared to the A-7 or the F-4.
Good plane, but it wasn't perfect, and it wasn't magic.