I realize sarcasm is a poor excuse for humor, but if all ten are unavailable (because of shooting and getting shot at), i think we (the US) would have a pretty rough time getting those planes working.
If their not available because of non-war reasons, it seems like the mission isn't really that big of a deal anyway.
I sort of think the US goes for the Cadillac solution for everything. Perhaps that's my bias because i only hear about the expensive stuff. I'd sort of expect there to be a nice gradient between really super high tech, down to cheap simple and reliable. But whatever, armchair quarterback.
In the case of the JSF program, maybe if that requirement had gotten split off from the rest of the program it could've been done for a cheaper price that would make it worthwhile. But the costs of the F-35 are still not done soaring out of control and at the end of it all I can't imagine that it will be worth the cost for the Marine Corps to have air cover during amphibious landings.
If the problem is not enough Marine firepower from the full deck carriers, the Marines should just buy more CTOL aircraft and put them on the carriers. All of the carrier air wings have been downsized since the cold war, and carriers are only going to sea with 65 or so aircraft, when they can hold 90. I'd much rather have 8 fully capable CTOL fighters on the full-deck carrier that is definitely going to be around in any amphibious landing than 8 low-performance (range and payload) VTOL fighters from an LHA/LHD.
Instead, we get a seriously compromised F-35A and C as far as I can tell because of what happened at Guadalcanal 70 years ago.