Why do the Rafale and Typhoon have Canards then?
The benefit of canards on a fighter might be explained why some operators of the Mirage III fitted them. Here are the reasons given by the Swiss.
The requirement was for better handling with reduced pilot workload, better turn rate, increased angle-of-attack (AoA), reduced minimum airspeed.
The canard produces two additional vortices which combine with the vortices on the delta wing. This gives an extension of controlled airflow up to a higher AoA and an unshielded fin and rudder. The vortex lift starts earlier, which results in reduced drag at a given lift. At a given AoA, the canard configuration gives more lift and less drag than the canardless delta configuration. The improved yaw stability permits higher AoA, and therefore lift and drag are approximately doubled with the canards. Overall manoeuvrability at low speeds is much improved. Minimum speed in 1g flight is down from 150kt IAS to less than 107kt.
Article here will give a primer.
https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarch...0-%200309.html