If what MSOCS says is the case, and the F-35B was never intended to land vertically away from the ship, then all the negative publicity could easily have been avoided by a single marketing/comms strategy.
Telling the truth.
After all, the heating issue was clearly defined in the now-infamous Navy spec document four years ago. It would still have been late to need, but a response to the effect that "RVLs are routine in Harrier ops and we believe that an RVL at a speed of >XX knots will avoid any problems" would have ended the controversy.
Instead, the JPO and LockMart insisted that the Navy report was all wrong (it wasn't) and that the ground environment was not different enough from a Harrier to require any changes.