Yes the fact that real documentation is sparse to non existent is obviously a problem. Nevertheless there is still an extreme ammount of public information available to work with, especially when it comes to the general capabilities of the F-35, its sensors and its PCD menu’s. And although we have no acess to accurate performance numbers, these are anything but impossible to reasonably estimate with some good research and cross referencing.
As a proof of concept i would really encourage people to take a look at what Dino Cattaneo has achieved with his F-35’s for P3D and MSFS. Whilst they may not be what many would consider full fidelity or study level, they till this day are the most accurate F-35 representations we have in any sim and would provide anyone with a good headstart of already conducted research.
And even if there is no possibility of making a one to one representation of the F-35, it would still serve the purpose of being the drive to improve BMS in some key areas (especially radar modelling and EW). And with the aircraft modding/development in BMS being stuck at porting F-16 avionics into pretty much anything, and the F-16 itself being modeled to almost perfection, there really isn’t anything that will bring meaningfull progress other than to develop an aircraft with clean sheet avionics.
So whats the worst that the F-35 being developed could cause? Progress, advancements in rather underrepresented areas and lessons for the future?