This article doesn't talk about the hardware capability so much as the viability of the infrastructure necessary to fund, manufacture and market the plane.
We have underestimated our opponents before and paid for our arrogance of presumed superiority. ME-109s, Zeros and MiG 15s cost us heavily in blood until we designed planes to beat their capabilities. In future conflicts we won't have the luxury of 4 years to establish ourselves as the arsenal of democracy.
The worst part about the Zero was that it was based on a Howard Hughes design that our military rejected.