IF!
If sh*t was sugar it would make your coffee taste better!
But that would not much change the difficulties with the JSF programme. Like most major engineering projects with political management, the -A and the -C have both had problems. Eliminating the -B would not have eliminated the problems of the other models.
Eliminating VSTOL at the start might probably have produced a different solution , but things like one engine, single crew (both political needs) and stealth would still have been in the requirements list. There would certainly have been a tailhook for the USN and probably the clever helmet would have been there too. There would also have been things which were not over-ridden by VSTOL and some of these would have generated extra problems.
In short VSTOL is not a sole cause of the F35's struggles. I don't even think it's a contributing one.
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