The carrier isn’t a lost cause if the US can get some anti-missile defenses going. We could have thought that urban vehicles were worthless in Iraq/Afghanistan due to IEDs. Then we improved our measures and released the striker and things got better.
My thought is the US needs to get their rear in gear with deploying lasers that knock down missiles and artillery shells. Surely a nuclear powered carrier and it’s nuclear powered fleet have the power to be equipped with these defenses that can shoot down the missiles.
If I understand the author is right the costs of developing these defenses is so expensive especially compared to the costs of the weapons the defense is going to try to defeat it will cripple the ability of the US Navy to do other things.
There is going to be a turning point moment like when the Japanese sank the British capital ships the Prince of Wales and Repulse off the Malaysian Peninsula, when some country like China or Iran takes out a carrier with a cruise or ballistic missiles.