If you consider the F-35B to be a dud, then you must really hate the far less capable Harriers used by the USMC.
Not really. It did its job at the time and didn't cost too much.
Now, suppose someone in 1975-80 had decided that we'd only need one fighter and scrapped the F-16 and F-18 in favor of Harrier variants. That would have been a mess.