Every time you see an increment in a product's generation number, it represents a new product. That's a universal process. If this was just an upgrade to PL-15, they could've named it PL-15 V2 like we've seen KLJ-7A V1 and V2. But this has newer technology in it and thus, a next generation name PL-16.
The current production run doesn't allow for deliveries to Pakistan as it's local versions only. As expected, after delivering first few J-35 A's for combat evaluation to PLAAF, the remainder of the run is creating the naval version of J-35's.
If Pakistan is going to get them and it's signed and agreed upon, it may be until next year when they'll start producing the J-35AE first batch.