Had the Mirage 4000 entered service at the start of the 1980s, there wouldn't have been a need for the Miirage 2000 or Rafale to exist, or even for France to have joined the Future European Fighter Aircraft program (leading to the Eurofighter Typhoon) in the first place. A high-lo mix of Mirage 4000s, F1s and Jaguars could have kept the AdA going into the 2020s with continuous upgrades. The Mirage 4000's larger size and integration from the start with ATLIS would have made it even better suited to be a nuclear bomber and large Strike Eagle-type conventional bombtruck, without the need to develop the Mirage 2000N/D. Most importantly, it would have freed up Dassault's time and resources - close to two decades or more of boondoggle of being involved with EADS and later the Rafale's development - to focus on a fifth generation competitor to the F-22/F-35, instead of having zero experience with fifth gens and trying to make FCAS from scratch.

>b-b-but the Navy
Fuck them, F-8s and Super Etendards would have been good enough for the 2000s-2020s and they could get F-35s afterwards. Its not like the Rafale M did shit anyway other than bomb some Afghan goatherders

>but muh foreign sales
Its not like the Mirage 2000 did very well compared to the F-16 either