It's such a shame, the original (circa 1986) YF-22 design was a simple yet very capable fighter - most of the high-tech parts were in the sensors and avionics. The engine was probably the next biggest risk - it was an entirely new design, and of course the materials used for the airframe were all state of the art. The airframe design itself was not a big stretch from things that had been done before. Put giant control surfaces driven by ultra-fast actuators on a plane with neutral stability and a good digital flight control system, combined with two incredible engines, and you get a kick-@ss fighter!
I think a combination of things that started in the late 80s & early 90s hurt the F-22:
a) I no longer worked on it.
I left Lockheed in 1988.
b) The Air Force made some significant changes to the requirements that forced a big redesign. That's when the thrust vectoring was added and they also shaved quite a bit of weight. On the other hand, without those changes, the YF-23 might have won.
c) Lockheed turned a significant amount of the F-22 project over to the General Dynamics folks in Texas. Prior to that, most of the YF-22 design was done by Lockheed ADP (the Skunkworks) in Burbank. The entire culture of the project changed after that - it went from a relatively small core team of some of the best engineers in the world, to a much, much larger team that was experienced in mega production programs like the F-16.
d) Many LONG years of budget battles caused massive project delays and cost overruns, followed by cost-cutting to try to make up for it. And, of course, since it took many years for the plane to get to production, all the people that originally worked on the project were long gone.
As a friend of mine often says: "This is why we can't have nice things."
