I think people are only debunking the exaggerated performance of Patriot instead of underestimating what it really can do.
SA has no choice other than Patriot. It could not bare the consequence of buying from Russia or China.
Turkey's choice of S-300 instead of Patriot speaks the opposite. The Turks even went so far willing to loose F-35. It would be crazy and stupid to give up a better SAM and F-35 just for the sake of pissing off US.
While F-35 is an amazing aircraft, in pure military capability. There is a large geopolitical and economic decision to motivate Turkey away from F-35.
Remember F-35 alone is not as powerful as F-35 with AEW&C, not to mention, a whole ecosystem of American weapons, ground-based radars, electronic warfare jets... etc. The MAR for AMRAM is like 12 nautical miles? While the stated max range is like 120 nautical miles? I think a common tactic is to turn off radar, use AEW&C to guide F-35, get in range, turn on radar, lock fire and run at 12nm.
To my point, if Turkey is to proceed with F-35, they will be forced to buy into the NATO ecosystem, and the f-35 itself is like 300 million a jet, plus the support network, it will be very expensive for Turkey, and Turkey will be tie to the West economy. So far, the west economy only have been contributing to hyper inflation in turkey. If turkey is sanction, becasue the west like to keep a tight leash on turkey (remember turkey have dispute with greece in cypus, and any time EU can sanction turkey, then no more amram).
Turkey wanted to diversify their investment, and have a better economic connections and geopolitical connections to Russia and China. the west isn't going to help turkey's economy. So buying the west system may eventually leave their F-35 into dead paper weight.
Lastly, turkey is working on their own 6th gen jets, so that tells you, they may want to skip 5th gen entirely. This is also a good decision, because it promote their own national industry, and save money in the long run if they skip 5th gen.
