I didn't actually check how heavy the empty weight of the Su-27 was so pretend I said 16.4t in my original post and not 17t.
The WS-15 is considerably lighter than the WS-10 due to fewer compressor stages, use of newer and lighter materials, and greater use of digital control system to replace mechanical components. Although the WS-10B has FADEC, it's not a very advanced FADEC owing to its early design date (it was meant to go on the WS-10A) so there is potential to further reduce the number of mechanical components. The WS-10 itself is 10% heavier than the AL-31F according to gongke which is why its original thrust target was ~10% higher than the AL-31F to maintain similar TWR. It wasn't until the success of the WS-10B that Taihang's original target thrust was met.