I've said it earlier. We call the JF-17 PFX a 4th.5 generation fighter or a 5th generation fighter, depending on how the 4S standard is evaluated.
The 4S standard for 5th gen fighters was proposed by the US Army. But, unfortunately, none of the F22/F35 in service with the US military fully meets that standard. neither does the Su-57/KF-21/KAAN. However, they are all referred to as 5th generation fighters.
As per the previous reasoning, if Saudi Arabia provides the money, China provides the technology and Pakistan takes care of the manufacturing, then there is no problem at all in upgrading the JF-17 PFX to what people call a 5th generation fighter. We would also have no problem upgrading it to equal or even surpass the KF-21/KAAN in terms of combat power. There are more than enough options in the existing technology pool. It's just that the higher-end subsystems you choose, the more powerful they are, but also more expensive. It's up to the military to choose whether to build a lot of cheap PFX? or a small number of high end PFX?
A PFX with cheap subsystems could be called a 4th.5 generation fighter.
A PFX with high-end subsystems could be called a 5th generation fighter.