So in Breaking Defense's book - it's hard to say whether that piece is reporting or an op-ed - skeptics "howl" and the F/A-18 is "ostensibly" cheaper.
This must be a new definition of "ostensibly", where the word means "as demonstrated conclusively in government budget documents, despite efforts of shills and trolls to apply new math to the issue". (And that compares a CV airplane to the F-35A model - ask the Navy if the Super H costs as much as an F-35C.)
F-35 pricing in the real world is a fascinating issue, mainly because the aircraft being produced now are all covered by a remarkable number of contracts, which only rises as the aircraft are fixed and reworked.
As for the foreign sales in LRIP 11, two comments. First they have to sell the 41 export jets in LRIP 10. And they didn't, in LRIP 9, sell all of the 23 aircraft they planned on, which was why Congress had to step in and plus-up in December.
Another comment on the BD piece: It does seem to reflect the attitude that it's "only" software. In 2016 that doesn't fly.