From what I read I don't see any substantial differences with the various contenders (altough I just went through a quick review on wiki). Announced payload is 7500kg vs 8050kg for the Super Hornet.
The main issue remains that of cost but what would have costed the closure of the corresponding factories? We have had the same issue in France with the Rafale. It is also outdated and has needed a crash-upgrade program for the aircrafts sent to Afghanistan (in order to allow them to drop laser-guided bombs, give me a break that's too funny especially as they have since been replaced by Mirage F1CR
). Then, in the case of France we are not even party in the development of any generation 5 aircraft and we are not developping one of our own. At least, the RAF should receive F-35 Lightning II withing 5-7 years. Nevertheless, I tend to agree with an Australian report I founded some times ago and which stated that relying primarily on furtivity is a mistake (That same report also stated that the F22 or the PAK-FA were much better than the F35, we'll see).
Concerning Air Force strength, the French Air Force still flies 306 combat aircraft (+69 for the navy) but that number is expected to be reduced to 120 (+60 for the navy) quite soon (Khadaffi is definitely the unlucky guy of the year). As far as I know, all major air forces have followed the same path. As long as we have the ability to fight on foreign soils with the full support of technology, it's fine. If someone ever manage to deprive our defences of that full technological backup, it's going to become fun.
What you describe for the Typhoon as plagued (IMO) all post cold-war aircrafts and, provided military planners are right it their assumption of future conflicts, it shouldn't represent much of a problem. Of course, we all know that military planners are always wrong (as demonstrated by the invasion of Iraq in 2003). However, ultimate success doesn't depend much on military planners but on the ability to adapt quickly and to mass produce military goods faster than your ennemy (as demonstrated by that same invasion of Iraq or by US and USSR in ww2).