Lol, they have 100+ of them on order and even exporting it and you worry about JF17s future? :biggrin2:
It's a low end fighter, like any light class fighters and it's normal that no advanced AF like PLAAF goes for it, since their low end is J10, just as most western countries use F16s as low end too.
But without bias, there is no way than to admit that they did well with the programme and that for PAF and PAK as a nation, it's a game changer!
They went from complete dependence on the US, to full operational and upgrade freedom, just as from importer of fighters to Co exporter of fighters. Not to mention the leap in operational capability JF17 means for PAF, since it's a force multiplier for them, that gets it's strength from the variety of weapons it can use in combination with modern tactics and capabilities like AWACS and stand off strikes.
It don't have to outperform the MKI, it just needs to be able to be data linked with their AWACS and be able to launch a missile. That's in fact a page of IAFs play book, that we have seen when they combined MKI and Bisons with similar tactics too, just that the JF 17 is far more advanced as a proper 4th gen fighter.
So downplaying it out of bias, instead of understand the threat the enemy poses, is not the way you should look at it.