There is a reason India is only buying 24. Its to show support for an Indian build plane. Lets be honest here, if this plane is not manufacture by India. But its manufacture by Russia or France or Germany, would India even buy such a plane? Of course not, India is trying to get a plane like Rafale, why would it buy a plane like LCA if its a foreign plane.
So the only reason India is buying this plane is because of 30 years of investment, it should not go into waste. So India AF reluctantly induct this plane even though it has much better options.
India really need to work hard on MKII and get it ready. If it take 10 or more years to build that plane, than Indian AF would only buy another 24 batch.