Well, anybody’s fine ideas are the best they could come up with. The Brits do understand aircraft carriersduring WWII their carriers had steel decks while ours had wood, and I believe the steam catapult is their idea as well. That said, the RN is a pale shadow of what it was and no doubt they have to ‘make do’ with less than what they want.
The Brit carriers having armored flightdecks mitigated a lot of combat damage, but it also resulted in a smaller airwing. And, actually, it was the other way around: the RN rec’d very small allotments of aircraft predictable war. So they built ships where the precious aircraft could be better protected since they alone wouldn’t be enough to defend the ship if it were attacked.
The USN didn’t have a dedicated Air Force (like the RAF) restricting the number of aircraft it could buy. So went for the larger airwing which, in theory, would limit the risk of the ship getting hit by taking out any attacker first.
And, while the Brits did come up with the steam catapult, angled deck and fresnel landing system, they also had some real stinkers. Like rubber inflatable decks that allowed wheel-less belly landings.
USS Antietam (CV-36) tested a rudimentary sponson for angled deck operations in 1952 and those tests were shared by both navies before HMS Triumph's conversion. Angled deck conversions of USS Essex (CV-9) and USS Midway (CV-41) were approved in 1955. USS Forrestal (CV-59) was the first carrier built with an angled flight deck in 1955.
The Mirror Landing Systems and steam catapults began installation aboard USS Oriskany (CV-34), Midway-class carriers, USS Forrestal (CV-59) and USS Saratoga (CV-60) beginning in 1955.