Superior platform or not - I'll leave that to the FAA to figure out after they do a deeper analysis of the Tejas Mk1A as they are going to do by November 2022. On forums such as these, the bias is too strong to bother to dispel.
India has already had FAA officials visiting HAL facilities once but a second more in-depth visit is due soon.
Regarding the delivery schedule- HAL will deliver the Tejas Mk1A to FAA 36 months after a contract is signed. That is the standard industry standard and if HAL misses delivery deadlines, they will have contractual penalties (both for IAF and FAA). So once again, FAA will cater to that possibility in their overall analysis and then decide.
I'd leave it to the professionals at the FAA to figure out what fits their needs, budgets and requirements the best. As far as we can see, they are clearly stating that the Tejas Mk1A does so, the only hiccup being the British components.
Just FYI, this is what is on offer for the FAA with the Tejas Mk1A
Every one of the weapons listed in there is either undergoing integration (JDAM-ER, ASRAAM, SAAW and AASM Hammer for instance) or has already been tested and is available (R-73E, Python V, iDerby-ER, HSLD, Griffin LGB).
The future weapons list, all of which are indigenous and under development, caters to the ARM, AShM and ALCM requirements as well.