Learn English – difference between “Has won” and “won”

"So far" means "up to now", which is what the present perfect continuous also means. So they go together nicely.

My bike has been running smoothly so far. I hope it'll make it through the end of the week without needing to go to the shop.

That being said, the simple present is fine in the context of your second sentence:

John: Hey Subha, how's your day going?
Subha: It's good so far.

Both are fine. The difference is in how the speaker is choosing to frame the event in time.

The goal that France have been looking for is choosing to treat this as an event extending to the present. The goal that France were looking for is choosing to treat it as an event in the past.

Both are grammatical and idiomatic. In this case there is very little difference in meaning.

The people who tell you that it depends on the objective question of when the event or situation finished, are giving you a simplified explanation to try and make it easier to understand; but their description does not match the way that English is actually used.

Many choices in the compound tenses of English (eg the choice of past vs. present perfect, past vs. past perfect, past vs past continuous, perfect vs. perfect continuous, past vs. perfect continuous, simple present vs. present continuous vs. future) do not correspond to objective differences, but to how the speaker is choosing to construct the temporal relationships between events, and often a different choice would be equally appropriate.