You're right, Eng. They have also had a lot of neck problems with the reclined seat.
In a way, the Eurofighter design was conservative in some areas, but at the time (and later) the side stick issue wasn't thought to have significant advantages. Either arrangement is fine for straight and level, but in hard manoeuvres the side stick can be awkward if the pilot needs to twist round in the cockpit. It also means releasing the stick to operate equipment on the right console and right instrument panel instead of being able to switch hands - even with HOTAS and DVI, there are still switches around.
Unless the cockpit is big the amount of stick movement is limited, even reduced purely to stick force sensors, which in turn brings other design changes.
To go back to the OP, I don't think Typhoon loses out with a centre stick and it was the popular vote in cockpit assessment.