cokecan,
If that was the case then Typhoon would have never made the ultimate competitive downselect. It succeeded where many platforms failed. The competition wasn't for the variant currently being flown by any of the consortium members, it was for a version to enter development and production in 2015 with the 1st 18 to be manufactured by the winning company and the remainder of the order to be manufactured by HAL in India.
If Typhoon had been eliminated in the early stages then your argument would hold water. As it was it made it right through to the end and lost on price.