Comment by dotancohen

Better for what missions? Maybe had the air force had a single fighter plane, a lighter version of the F-15 would be ideal. But given that the lighter fighter role was to be filled by the YF-16 and YF-17 (today the F-16 and F-18), the F-15 was very well equipped and powered for the missions it would fill.

The F-4 was an impressive engineering achievement only in the sense that it was far overpowered to make up for it being under-winged. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the F-4 and "Happy Phantom" is my daughter's Stack Exchange handle. It is an amazing airplane. But it was as much dumb luck as it was engineering. And none of that is relevant to the role of the F-15 in the United States Air Force, and other air forces around the world.

The F-15 is not the F-35, which is meant to take the light-fighter and air superiority and ground attack and even recon roles. I do not think that a single plane can effectively take on all those roles. Even if the F-4 did!