JAS39 has an infinitely better FM than any flanker, I have been able to consistently outrate, outspeed and out energy Su-30SM and Su-33 in staged (custom) dogfights against roughly equivalent pilots.
The TVC does very little to help when you can perpetually rate up while they fall out the air desperately trying to AoA toggle their way out of death
Against a gripen there’s very low chance, you can spam preflares and the r73 shot is likely going to miss, and the opportunity to get a gun kill fades so easily if the gripen player maintains his energy well enough.
Y’all should really play the Su30 before saying it’s a dogfight beast, 90% of the times you end up in one you either die to 3rd party or lose because of the poor FM, the remaining 10% is people who don’t know what the hell they are doing against it.
Bvr lasts less than 4 mins, past that there is still a furball and dogfighting going on. The META is not BVR centred anyway, its FM and Missile focused
BVR dictates initial engagement and who can take altitude advantage (raining missiles from altitude advantage is quite powerful and with how multipath works almost guarantees kills)
I mean, it goes under assumption that you got enough energy/altitude to recover. Otherwise pulling off dogfight with maneuver/TVC on low altitude is just asking to be send to the hunger
Why do you need altitude advantage?
To gain energy advantage due to your aircraft not being able to produce much.
Out of all the jets at top ranks, only Su-34 would arguably fit that description.
With an effective 11km altitude ceiling, a MICA EM [the shortest range ARH at top BR] will reach the target from sea level, let alone other missiles.
The initial BVR is an effective skill check for the opposite team.