It's not like there's any alternative. We need the capabilities and there are no other comparable aircraft in production, so despite its flaws it's the F-35 or nothing. Meanwhile the F-22 airframes are wearing out, and it's too small to be fully effective in the Indo-Pacific theater, so the F-47 is needed as well. There's plenty of blame to go around for the current deplorable state of readiness but it is what it is.

And let's not have any silly claims that those manned fighters could be completely replaced by cheaper drones. Maybe that will be possible someday but for now AI software is nowhere near ready to take on the full mission set.