Hi there. I'm a bit late. Hopefully the discussion is still welcome.

I've wondered about the idea of using smaller carriers myself. However, outside of a few scenarios, they are not that great, imo. As a dedicated mini carrier for an ARG, that'd be great, especially if the marines are successful in getting the MUX awacs drone made. In fact, I'd argue we need to make more of the America flight Is to pair with the flight II: nine of each, basically.

However, going in to deal with China (or some other major combatant), the America class and similar sized carriers are not going to cut it. The Ford (when they finally iron the bugs out) and the previous Nimitz classes, can carry around 100 aircraft at full capacity. They've not had them at that capacity for a long time because the Navy hasn't really needed it and, honestly, its pretty expensive. With the return to a Cold War II, it's likely they'll need to do so.

The cost of 4 Americas is the same as one Ford (+/-), but 4 Americas don't have the same number of aircraft a Ford could carry (theoretically). Additionally, the legs on a F-35B are much shorter than on a C. And you're not getting tankers off an America like they are working on for the Fords (Stingrays). Additionally, there's almost no way you are going to get the Navy into the idea their sixth gen fighter (FA-XX) needs to be VSTOL after the experiences of the F-35.

The VSTOL carrier will be outgunned by the coming CV-02 and CV-03 carriers China is building and designing respectively. The CV-02 class has been laid down in Shanghai and is going to be ~65k tons with EMALS cats. She won't be able to go toe to toe with a Ford, but she could probably eat a couple Americas once she has her own 5th gen aircraft onboard. Which is coming, btw: China has acknowledged their J-15 is not great, killing pilots and started a replacement two years ago. Might be FC-31/J-31 derived, might be something else. First flight in a year or three, depending.

Finally, you have the political element: if the Navy had 40 VSTOL carriers instead of 10 fleet carriers, then Congress would start hacking away. 40?! Who needs THAT many.