100% agree with this part, especially when we think about a war against an opponent like China, where the prime mission will be to take out the closest air and missile bases with pre-emptive strikes. EF in this case it completelly useless, since it has not a single stand off weapon integrated now or cleared for integration anytime soon. What makes it even more problematic is the fact, that you must develop and integrate CFTs too, because it won't be able to carry enough fuel tanks when it carriers heavy weapons. That obviously makes it even more expensive to make the EF useful for IAF and there are a lot of such costs that has to be added.
Btw, Armiger is a dead project and can't be revived anymore.
Russia has to agree, but even if that's not possible, because EFs centerline station has size restrictions and can carry only certain payloads. It can't even carry Storm Shadow or Taurus there!