Your points are sound, but where is the proof that a SAM struck an Israeli F-35 during the course of one of its sorties over Syrian airspace? Nothing concrete in our hands unfortunately.
This happened:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/storks-hit-f-35-sending-stealth-jet-to-garage/
F-35 did not suffer damage in the incident involving two storks, but this wouldn't be the case with a SAM in the picture.
Any SAM is expected to be armed with a warhead, and even an impact of
limited-scale can trigger warhead explosion which will be sufficient to damage target aircraft beyond the point of recovery and/or force it to land prematurely.
Recommended:
https://www.quora.com/How-true-is-it-that-an-Israeli-F-35I-was-shot-down-by-a-Soviet-era-A2A
A-10's frame is ARMORED / REINFORCED to large extent; this aircraft is designed to be visible on the front lines to destroy armored columns and handle punishment if need be. Of-course A-10 pilots are not expected to be reckless regardless, but you get the picture.
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F-117 is 1st generation LO design but F-35 is 3rd generation VLO design - lot of difference in the capabilities of these two birds on the whole. Although F-117 is still cutting-edge for majority of countries, but advancements in this domain are continous since. Serbians had the luxury to study Persian Gulf War (1991) and devise contingencies against potential onslaught from NATO. Although Serbians defenses scored some decent hits
[a], they failed to accomplish anything significant against USAF and disrupt its operations over Serbian airspace otherwise (thousands of sorties in total). Serbian's achievement in bringing down an F-117 is an OUTLIER INCIDENT because these birds executed hundreds of sorties over Serbian airspace throughout the course of war without another incident otherwise.
Some good articles in relation to understanding the capabilities of F-35, and to connect relevant dots.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/f-35-russia-china-radar-counter-stealth-2017-5
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorent...t-of-the-f-35-fighter-story-you-havent-heard/
[3] https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/...y-it-produced-training-challenges-pilot-says/
Syrian defenses are decent per Asian standards, and Damascus in particular, is undeniably among the most heavily guarded locations on Earth, but still...
Even the mighty S-400 system cannot notice F-35 until it is too late.
Israeli strike operations over Syria appear to be well-planned and executed on average due to Russian activities and Syrian defenses in the picture, and this is why Israeli losses are minimum in these adventures. Nevertheless, distant observers do not have a clue about when, where and how Israel have utilized its F-35 aircraft over Syrian airspace thus far because these missions are largely classified, and VLO works as advertised.
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[a] https://thevelvetrocket.com/2013/03/03/american-aircraft-shot-down-by-serbia-in-1999/
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Sometimes a bird strike is just a bird strike. However, I am surprised how easily people can be misled these days.
