How much does the latest whizbang wide view HUD cost? Buehler? Anyone? Dunno. Head Hanche from Norway has an answer for the view (from an F-35A I will guess).
"...A negative in training one on one has been that the view out of the cockpit is not as good as on the F-16. The visibility in a F-16 is especially good, better than in any other fighter I've flown. I could turn all the way around in my seat and see the opposite wingtip. In the F-35 I can't do that because the seat blocks some of the view. This made me a bit frustrated after the first flights. I had to learn to move different. Now I move forward in the seat before I lean a bit sideways and turn my head to look back. That way I can look around the sides of the seat. In the F-35 you learn to work around the issue and it's not a real disadvantage once you know how to do it...."
http://www.f-16.net/forum/download/file.php?id=23004 (PDF 0.8Mb)