Games are not designed for anything at top tier - if anything it currently heavily leans in favour ARH missiles.
If for you it ends like a knife-fight you probably didnt try to keep your distance, albeit this is a tactic that ia perhaps most easily achieved with F-15s, arguably F-16s.
The other AMRAAM platforms are perhaps more ‘generalists’ than ‘BVR focused’. The Gripen, my go to example is perhaps most similar to the F-16 in A2A loadouts, although iirc it has two less pylons for AMRAAMs.
The Russian planes for me fill the generalist role, but the Su-30 really doesnt have a niche than a big fat missile bus that carries 1 missile for every enemy plane (kind of), and funnily enough thats where it shines - a big loadout.
We could make an argument about 1 or 2 players getting through the furball, then engaging the enemy in a dogfight.
Problem is that none of the Top-Tier jets are really made for pure dogfights - its more of a last resort option that a design goal. Especially considering the target rich environment that is ARB, if there is one thing I have learnt, then its the fact that nothing really survives in it for long (except for the Gripen before the BOL nerf, as it actively thrived in that environment).
The problem is that the community as a whole has not still fully adapted to the new situation - we still try to rush into a furball to feel alive in a furball, whereas in real life you want to avoid a dogfight as much as possible.
Staying clear of threats, awareness of the situation, respecting and actively trying to avoid enemy WEZ is your primary line of defense, not CMs. CMs are last resort. They have a functionality in other cases, but just by themselves they are not enough, nor should they be.
Moreover than that: the massive amounts of CMs shouldnt allow aircraft to straight on ignore game mechanics for a prolonged period of time.