Doesn’t everyone agree that the F-22 is pretty good?
they have had issues as well, one fatal;
The F-22 was the air dominance fighter to crush everything in the sky. It was over engineered and over built and suffered from massive price tags which hindered how many the Airforce bought. It’s a similar story to the Seawolf class attack sub. As a result only so many were ever built.
The F22 is generally acknowledged as the best air superiority fighter in the world. By a bunch. (Only people who disagree are people trying to sell their own fighters.)
The F-22 is an amazing platform, well beyond its competitors. Having flown against it at Red Flag, I have been on the receiving end of its total dominance of the air battle.
I think the F-35 will achieve the same dominance in the strike arena, not through aerodynamic superiority, but through information dominance. The fused sensor picture of the F-35 will far surpass any other previous platform. The data collected by the aircraft on every mission will give war fighters the most accurate picture we have ever had of the battle space.