SS,
Welcome back to a thread where , rather than being more appropriately viewed as credible, you are accused of being biased just because you have flown F-35?! I don't know many people with your experience and level of comparison to base your opinion on but as I wrote a page or so ago, there is absolutely no convincing certain people on here.
LO, Longeron,
Once again, we should be using 3F as the baseline capability and you and I both know that in acquisition you lock capabilities down a fair time in advance so that you're not constantly moving the goalposts for those trying to achieve them; I cite Rover, 4K sensors etc as such moves after they locked down 3F. If I was asked to go war tomorrow against a near-peer foe I'd choose F-35 Block 2B over Rafale; in fact pretty much anything save Raptor. Again, like SS, my personal choice based on a significant amount of study and operational practise of the art of flying combat ac. So am I biased? Think what you want.
There is quite a lot of legacy mindset to much of the theorycrafting on this forum, and elsewhere, which purposefully obfuscates the whole point of 5th Gen.