Yes, I've always thought we swapped our approach to weapons engineering with the German's approach after WWII which is weird considering both us and the Russians used numbers to overwhelm them. Numbers seem way more important in the air since you can only engage targets 1 at a time after the initial merge.
Yeah, it's strange that we decided to mimic the losers of the war. However, it didn't use to be as pronounced a difference. The whole purpose of the F-16 was to create a lower cost (yet still high performance) aircraft so we could have more of them. They were/are obviously less survivable than the larger, two engine aircraft (F-14, F-15, F-18). And, combine the size and stealth and you got the F-22, which is too expensive to ever be considered expendable or possible to manufacture at large numbers. The F-35 was supposed to bring the F-16 approach to generation 5 aircraft. While cheaper than the F-22, it has a long way to go before becoming inexpensive. I like this unmanned approach as an alternative. Seems like technology is there now and the right people are making the necessary choices to compete with Russia and (mostly) China.
Additionally, with the latest tech, stealth jet pilots can engage just about as many targets as they have ordnance for, so long as they can stand off and not be detected. Enter stealthy, well armed drones flying ahead and no pack of enemy aircraft or vehicles is safe from even a single command jet.
It'll be interesting to see a change in tactics, more important to hit the command and control nerve centers in that case, OR just go for populous places to do as much damage as possible.
Yeah, hitting C & C has been highest priority for quite a while now, just as soon as a safe corridor could be made in air defenses to allow allied aircraft entry and exit. Depending on the range of these drones, they may make this mission a whole lot less risky for pilots.