Well then that basically alleviates majority of the issues the Russians have with TOT, i.e. Making india self reliant to not pursue future aircrafts from Russia. This has been mentioned in the opening post itself citing China's example.
So if india can't copy this tech due to its low to non existant technical base (as per your POV) then what's the issue in your mind? The answer to the OP of whether it's preposterous for india to ask TOT should be a resounding, NO!
Is that your opinion?
@Chinese-Dragon thoughts?
Sure, if India is unable to absorb the technology, that would mean that Russia will not have the risk of losing future sales, or strengthening a future competitor for arms sales.
However, think about why the USA refused to export even ready-made F-22's to Israel?
I mean Israel is highly unlikely to let China and Russia take a look inside the F-22 right? Let alone sell them the tech under the table. Yet the USA still thought it was too much of a risk.
Even if Israel was serious about not letting the technology slip out, there is still a further risk of it being stolen, in addition to the risk of it being stolen directly from the USA (as was alleged to have happened via Chinese hacking).
Same reason they won't upgrade the Jet fighters in Taiwan. I mean Taiwan isn't going to sell the secrets to China right? Yet the risk is still huge of the technology finding its way into Chinese and Russian hands anyway, or onto the black market.
Russia knows that India is very comfy with the USA, and the USA knows that India is very comfy with Russia. Now imagine from the USA's perspective for instance, if they had F-22's in India for whatever reason, how could they be sure that India wouldn't let Russian engineers onto the site or pass on information to Russia?
Or vice versa? Russia has been watching as America became India's top defense partner in the last few years. India is now seen to be very pro-USA, how does Russia know that India won't pass on some information to the USA on Russia's 5th gen technology? In exchange for some benefit, such as stopping Russian/American arms sales to Pakistan?