Imagine if the money went to say...the F-22.
Then the F-22 would have been overburdened and half the plane it should be with the additional roles required. Multi-role is a nice concept, but multiple types of mission specific aircraft and pilots are the only things that deliver when rubber meets road.
Thankfully, the tooling for the F-22 was saved—not destroyed. The Raptor production line can be re-opened (according to Lockheed Martin) for $1 billion. Cost per unit would be comparable to what we paid in the initial production run, with inflation factored in.