The only reason the F-22 cost as much as it did was because the production line was insanely spread out.
“over 1,000 subcontractors and suppliers from 46 states and up to 95,000 jobs, and spanned 15 years at a peak rate of roughly two airplanes per month”
That’s insane. Fix that, things get cheaper quick.
Probably so. Also, if the USAF had kept the buy at the original numbers, 750 aircraft, and not so foolishly precluded foreign purchases then the unit cost would have been not much more than and F-15 (adjusted for inflation). Lockheed-Martin saw the writing on the wall when the F-35 was conceived as a multi-national partnership which would share development costs and guarantee foreign sales.
Add to the fact that the Russian & Chinese F-22 wannabees are basically still-born for the same reason that the F-22 program was crippled. So the F-35 while somewhat more limited in concept, is ‘good enough’. I guess the plane you have is better than the one you don’t.