Since we cross-posted I deleted the last one and will use some of the same content.
First, there is some truth to the Zero analogy. Basically, Japan's measly industrial capacity could never generate vast numbers of 2000 hp engines like the R-2800. Indeed I don't think they ever built anything in that class. So as the war progressed the US could build fighters with heavy armament, armor/self-sealing tanks, speed and maneuverability.
However, the tactics (as reported by the Japanese) were hit-and-run rather than a maneuvering fight at higher speed. The key was "engagement control": attack when the position is favorable and get the hell out before the stuation becomes more equal. Ideally suited to quickly trained pilots, and avoided getting nuggets killed in their first two or three fights.
But there was another huge factor: the Zero, very maneuverable with slow-firing but very lethal armament, was ideal for the ultra-elite pilots of the IJN in November 1941. Unfortunately all of the world's flying skill is -all use when you are sitting on an aircraft carrier that is on fire and sinking. The IJN never recovered from Midway.
The Su family - which no Western AF has ever fought for real - is not, in this context, an analog for the Zero, because it is agile, fast and heavily armed. And the F-35 is only an analog for the F4U if it has dominant speed, climb, acceleration and altitude.
OK, says Team F-35, but what about systems and weapons and stealth?
The F-35 (they say) wins at long range with stealth and LPI and in WVR with HOBS, EO-DAS and HMDS.
But it can't do both on the same mission because (unlike F-22. J-20 and T-50) it has no internal HOBS missile. So even if the untested notion of winning in WVR with inferior EM works, the F-35 is still not suited for air-to-air missions. It's a stealth bomber with self-escort, and if its boosters would accept that, I would give them an easier time.
As for "nobody will do WVR because nobody's done it in XX years": Nope, nobody has because there has not been anything like a peer-to-peer air conflict. In those situations (particularly where only one side has AWACS) engagements are more likely to get decided BVR, and the other side avoids WVR because they don't want to die. So the absence of WVR is situational and not an eternal truth.