I liked https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n07/daniel-soar/the-most-expensive... for its explanation of the political situation the F-35 is being built in, and the multinational ties that make it extremely difficult to cancel.

TL;DR: The scope of this project (intentionally) means there are customers in 10s of countries, with most of them also contributing portions of the plans and so invested in the sales of the others. Just in the US alone contractors account for more people than the Coal industry we're hearing so much about right now.

I have not got nearly enough information to say if it's a good or bad plane. But I find it extremely interesting to think that to a large degree, it doesn't matter.