IAF was prepared for a simpler strike, similar to theirs at Balakot. What IAF was not prepared for were the complex divisive tactics of PAF prior to the strike and the EW tactics employed during the skirmish.
Most people have the misled impression that only 24x PAF fighters got airborne shortly before 1000 and simply moved towards the LoC. If I recall the OSINT reports correctly, Pakistani skies were buzzing with PAF aircrafts in multiple sectors since 0800. That means for roughly 2 hours PAF conducted extremely dense BARCAPs along the LoC & IB, while not crossing the 10km buffer of LoC/IB, hence wearing the IAF out and creating chaotic confusion. That's why PAF's intrusion was met by a meager 8x IAF fighters. There are also reports that the Phalcon AWACS was not on station when PAF intruded. It appears that IA had not deployed SAMs in the LoC area, neither they had enough assets airborne for active jamming of PAF aircrafts.
This does not means that IAF is any lesser than PAF. IAF employed its own mix of covert and divisive tactics before intruding to strike Balakot with SOWs. Both air forces simply managed to create a localized environment of air superiority in the respective sectors of air space, prior to executing their respective air strikes.
Considering a future conflict, the entity which has benefited the most from this skirmish, is the one that got to learn the most. Glaring holes in IAF's armor were exposed by PAF, while on the other hand IAF employed relatively simpler tactics during the Balakot strike, exposing next to nothing of PAF. Resultantly, IAF will now go for better BVRs, more AWACS & AEWs, more ECM equipment etc. Overall, this skirmish has a lot of similarities with PAF's dominance over IAF in '65, which led to complacency.
It is true, but sometimes things boil down to a simple fact that whether you have enough resources to buy new equipment. India can sustain plugging the chinks in its armor, Pakistan can't. Like I gave an example, IAF's bases are a lot well protected than PAF's, and PAF still hasn't found a way to conduct anti-airfield ops without getting shot down in huge numbers.
This is exactly the sort of feel-good bravado that led to '71.