They are talking about Rafale M mainly which is pretty expensive machine both to procure and maintain due to economic of scale (rather lack of it) and Froggs insistence of local manufacturing (that is prohibitively expensive for mass market product). Also it’s going to have way less development potential than something like F35 with huge MIC and customer base to back it up.
You want to twist the reality to comfort your opinion. But it doesn't work.
you WANT that the Rafale M to be more expensive and so much different from the C/B version for justifying the fact to switch to the F35. Ok... Got your point. But facts are facts and your opinion is based on twisted facts.
Is Rafale M different from Rafale C/M ? YES
Does it have an impact on the maintenance cost ? YES
Is this difference important ? NO
Why ? Because when it comes to compare maintenance cost, you have to take into account all the different systems and hardware. and 95% of the systems between ALL Rafale are the same. Is the way the mainframe is different have an impact on maintenance ? NO. Because there is no maintenance on structure.
But you'll have maybe something with the integrated ladder, or main landing gear or tail hook.
Anyway, F35C is a nighmare of maintenance. F35 is 2,5X more higher when it comes with cost per flight hour. Availability is also very poor. 30% of full mission capable availability !! Ask the IAF !
Now, when it comes with production cost, sorry but.. Rafale M production cost is about 57 millions of euros (in 2013, without taxes, which is the price a foreign country is paying, I can explain this separately), when for F35C is 100 millions of US dollars. Rafale M Production cost is ruffly the same for the air variant, because, again, almost all the system are the same. Engines which represent 25% of the plane cost are the same. Avionics which represent between 30 and 40% of the cost are the same. Only the structural airframe is quite different. so on average the Rafale M could be something like 15% expensive. What a big deal !
Sorry but if you want to search for advantages over the F35C, there are some, but not here.