Aircraft Carriers: Great for sinking the Imperial Japanese Navy circa 1945. Very large and easy targets for anti ship ballistic missiles from peer and near peer adversaries today. Or supersonic torpedoes. Or cruise missiles. The Navy’s obsession with this obsolete technology is odd. Even fourth rate powers like the Iranians and North Koreans can threaten our ships... the Chinese can sink any within their theater of operations.
They are also very useful for staging raids, providing air cover, or insertion/extractions near places that don’t let us stage from their nations. The options that concern you are occur only in cases of all out war.