Carriers will be in the deep blue water, not in striking distance of Chinese land targets.
That job is for F-35A and heavy bombers with advanced weapons.
The carriers will keep the lanes open/controlled from the west coast to at least Japan and the PI.
Recent experiences shown that a carrier task force cannot engage in close engagements without serious risks of taking catastrophic losses
That means that our carriers will have to operate at standoff distances not much closer than our ground based soon to be F47 and B21 fleet
The Navy is also having a bit of a time figuring out carrier based stealth opps and aircraft readiness
The bottom line is that the Navy needs to get its hanger in order and figure out carrier strike group force protection against Chinese and other peer adversaries before it can effectively deploy a 6 th Gen fighter from carriers
The decision to delay a 6th gen aircraft until that occurs is the right decision
Aircraft carriers are currently excellent platforms for drones and the Navy will probably gravitate to that mission in the interim