For comparison, the F-22's skin had a reputation for scratching from a rough touch and straight-up dissolving in spilled jet fuel (or even water). Stealth aircraft from before that were basically allowed to be usually-hangared money pits because they only needed to fly occasionally, to collect intel or end the world or whatever.

The process of designing the F-35 was insane, slow and cost billions and billions of dollars, but that's because the requirements given were over the top. They asked for three planes in one (an Osprey, an F-16 and a B-2), and eventually actually got something like that.

The other guy says they come out about the same as a Gripen, which would be remarkable because the Gripen is designed to be run out of a forest during a Russian invasion of Sweden, and not stealthy at all. Maybe it's more with the engine and air-frame. Either way, it's decent, and they like to brag about how almost all the parts can be reached without disassembly (they're "one-deep").