The MiG-29 was indeed pretty hopeless in DS. But as we learned in subsequent years (and as better informed sources knew), the bog-standard MiG-29 was, from the avionics and HMI standard, a typical Soviet ground-controlled interceptor. Since we kneecapped the C2 at H-plus-a-sneeze, it was thereafter remarkably useless, because Blue had an operational picture and Red did not.
The Su-35 and parallel Chinese upgrades are different animals, and the campaign (particularly in WestPac) will be even more different.