I knew someone would bring up the Rafale A... which was just a technology demonstrator (materials/aerodynamic design/full fly-by-computer) like the EAP was... the actual Rafale B/C/M design was developed from that, yes... but they were quite different in their internals from R-A... and they were (ok, no underline) designed with the stronger structures needed by a production combat aircraft that would operate from a carrier.
One more thing. If the carrier design was mostly done before the first B/C model started building, then it counts as a "from the start/beginning" design! There was no modification of an in-production design needed... which is the problem with Typhoon at this late stage.