The F-35 would be a normal amount of bad if it had a normal price. It's overall pretty decent with a few larger problems and a few really good features, but also it costs an inconceivable amount of money for a single weapon system, so the fact that in most ways it isn't a substantial upgrade over the F-16 means that it's the biggest boondoggle in history. Of course even if it was the best plane ever, it's still a tool of warfare, with no possible application outside of bringing death, and it has a program cost of 1.8 trillion dollars. The only things that are as expensive as it are massive infrastructure projects like the interstate system, or programs with no end-date, like social security or medicare

EVEN IF the US were a good institution, EVEN IF the F-35's other developers and users were good institutions, it would still be a massive waste of money. The F-22 can probably be modified to perform aircraft carrier and other short runway landings so it's redundant in that regard. The F-35 was meant to replace the F-15, F-16, F-18, and A-10 for less money than the F-22 and it's failed in every regard.

And this isn't even getting into the fact that fighter jets are irrelevant to modern warfare (even if wars were being fought ethically and for good reasons (they're not)). Everything an aircraft carrier can do, a submarine or surface ship can do without aircraft by using missiles. Everything a fighter jet can do that's actually necessary on a modern battlefield can be done by ground based equipment or other aircraft. Even the cheapest modern fighter jets cost millions of dollars to build and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain. Even if we buy into 90% of US military propaganda, the F-35 and all other fighter jets fail to stack up.

The real purpose behind the F-22 and F-35 is propaganda. "Look China, look Russia, look DPRK, we have magic invisible airplanes you can't shoot down! Look America, we're unstoppable (so you malcontents shouldn't get any ideas)!" The spyplane/surveillance capabilities of stealth fighter jets could probably be better performed by stealth bombers or other aircraft. The anti-aircraft capabilities of fighter jets can be performed by surface-to-air missiles. The air-to-surface bombing capabilities of fighter jets can be performed by bombers and helicopters. The close air support capabilities of fighter jets can be performed by helicopters. There's literally nothing a fighter jet is good at that other, cheaper shit isn't better at. But it makes Congress and the Generals and the weapons lobby happy so American taxpayers should go fuck themselves in their eyes. And it makes the fascists happy so they'll spend their taxes on it gladly.

And again, this isn't even digging into why the US and most, if not all, of its allies are fascistic creeps who should be disempowered, or why warfare is an ugly wretched thing that should be avoided.

Tldr fuck them planes.