Shenyang J-15 "Flying Shark"

[Ainen]

I think the OP’s point is that the J-16 is simply much more thoroughly developed for modern A2A combat than Russian-/export-Flankers, which isn’t exactly a difficult point to agree with... It also ties into the visual evidence of the signature-reduction work done on the J-16...

In this case the answer will be no. Chinese aircraft community tend to iterate chinese fighters upwards every cycle some voice thinks of something.

Signature reduction work is far more prominent on 2010s iterations of Russian aircraft (su-35s, mig-29k) than on Chinese ones(flankers at least; j-10c is more controversial); the only Chinese 4th gen fighter aircraft where visual part of signature management really becomes apparent is J-15T.

Even there it's hard to tell if it's thorough hotspot control, or just outflow of already available tech process, applied "may as well" (like on Su-30sm2).

Serration on trailing edge is nice, but on the overall signature of a flanker with weapons it's going to be as effective as a cargo cult.