Yes. But then the USAF and Navy would have had to realized that their two SOPs, which is to have a fast truck (or intercepter) and try to make it into a dogfighter or else to have sweet dogfighter (or intercepter) and then try to make it into a fast truck, were not ideal.
The extreme form of this was the 104 which would eventually be able to even carry nukes with some special kit (not that any did but Lockheed made sure that certain models could).
Though in its role as a trainer and also as a sparring partner in certain training programs I think the F5 did finally help prepare the way for air superiority fighters to be seen as needed.
... then they demanded that those do everything too ... do everythingism is still sadly SOP. Very expensive SOP. There really is a quality to quantity.
To a large degree, stealth and beyond-visual-range missiles have made obsolete much traditional thinking about air combat. A decade or so from now, aircraft like the F-16 and F-5 will be obsolete and not survivable against first line fighter aircraft.