I am with
Mennix on this. Yes, the OP has no entitlement. That said, his is the textbook example of a situation where exercising judgment rather than sticking to the rules in a robot fashion would be called for, imo. We are not talking about someone who is playing fast and loose and taking high risks for connections on separate tickets. There were FOUR hours between the flights. Moreover, the OP is PE. Clearly, this is a genuine case, and understanding and compassion on the part of the airline (at, it has to be said, no cost to the airline itself) goes a very long way in creating goodwill.
Yes, AF could have insisted on him paying the full-fare. This, however, would be a surefire way to make sure that the pax trots up to the ticket desk of another airline and flies with them and never ever sets foot on an AF plane again except where it is impossible to do otherwise. You can bet your bottom dollar that I would not buy a full-fare ticket from an airline that just treated me this way, even if it meant delaying my arrival home by several hours and a much longer/circumvoluted journey home, and I suspect that I would not be the only one to do so in such a situation.
I have been at the receiving end of AF's CDG personnel "generosity" in a similar situation and it had the predictable effect of my avoiding flying AF at all costs for quite some time. I have kind of recovered from it now (
) but it has still left an imprint and, unless there is a very clear advantage flying AF, I will rather fly another airline.
And yes, in my experience, AF and KL tend to behave differently in such situations with KL tending to show more flexibility and understanding than AF, although less markedly so than in the past.