I tend to not believe all that's written in a very biased media who speaks for an administration that is not interested in our strong defense.
The F-35 has barely gotten started after being born into a very hostile environment. Have people forgotten the bad press that comes with developing each new airplane? This is nothing new. The airplanes people love now got the same sort of reception as the F-35 is getting.
Personally, I find it intriguing, with all sorts of commonality built in from the start and what looks like a huge amount of space up front and elsewhere for whatever systems might be now or in the future.
If it's maintenance friendly and as easy to fly and performs as well as I've read, we'll be well served.
Downgrading the performance expectations pretty much says that the performance isn’t going to be what once was predicted.
I think that virtually every new aircraft made in the last 50 years has been harshly criticized during “growing pains”. I do worry that this particular plane was designed to “do everything fairly well”, which may just not be physically possible. This might matter against an adversary that can do one thing well - and cost 1/10th as much.
The media hates success!