Bevo,
What has just occurred is a classic pprune-ism. Courtney has offered some sage advice, you have swung in with the absolute experts opinion based on experience and fact...and then some bloke came along and reduced us once again to 'well my favourite is...'!
As it happens I also think we keep missing the F-18E off the list, but I will declare a bias having flown them. However, if you do have AESA, 9X, JHMCS, and a jet that's happiest at 35 alpha (but with no limit) you have a potent machine.
I am clearly not one of the 'greats' you name Bevo but I did collect 1500 Sea Harrier and Harrier hours. A simple comparator to the F-18E is that the Sea Harrier had the better radar (for BFM, the combat modes were excellent) the Harrier had the better roll, the Super Hornet/ Rhino had the better everything else.
Typhoon mate - when you have F-22 on your side it's like knowing the world police are waiting in the wings for you. They're incredible. Mind you when they're on the other side they still struggle if you can do off bore sight and match them for alpha.