Some people hate it. A lot of people think ot changes the air battle in gemetric proportions. I don’t hear fighter pilots complaining much.
Anyone who buys into the F-35's strengths is not going to speak publicly about its weaknesses, though they will, of course, work to mitigate them -- hence the years and $billions of added development.
I think all that is fine, they should fix whatever they can before sending the F-35 into real combat.
But ultimately, in the past, present and future of warfare, "perfect" is not the standard.
"Good enough" is truly good enough if it wins battles.
So the question becomes: is today's F-35 at the 95% of its intended potential, or only 65%.
Of course there's no way for you or I to know, nor should we know, but that's what tells the program managers if, ultimately, they have a winner here or and un-mitigatable fail.
Nor will you. Those of us who’ve flown tactical jets in combat know one thing: F-35 is a death ray. It has unbelievably game-changing abilities.
I don’t want to engage in argumentative discussions with laymen - quite content to let the jet prove itself, of which I’m afraid it soon will.