I am no expert at all on this stuff, but isn't the F-22 also needed for situations for example if some third world country has some target in it that needs to be taken out, but said little country also has some sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles and radar that they have purchased from the Russians for example, wouldn't we want the F-22 in this instance?
It could fly in, take out the targets, then get out fast before anyone even knew what happened.
Whereas with F-15s and so forth, I mean they do not have the capabilities of the F-22 at all. It would probably be far more dangerous for the F-15s or F-16s or whatever aircraft they used.
It also would be a psychological thing for said country if they shot down the aircraft of the mighty United States and send a message to other countries, "The U.S. cannot stop us."
The Abrams tank and the Apache were laughed at as well in their initial development stages, could anyone imagine if we'd gone into the Gulf War with the M-60 tanks and so forth?
Like said we own the skies. We want clear dominance of the skies, where we can dominate easily and quickly and overwhelm the enemy.
My (again non-expert!) view of the F-22 is keep it operational, and keep enough around so that the military knows how to use them and maintain them, but not so many as required to fight a world war or anything, however should any big problems arise, we can ramp up production of them if required.