understood.
That probably required them to use their airbases on rabaul in order to strike guadalcanal targets..a long round trip, for sure, but the initial naval battles around Guadalcanal were cruisers, etc..savo island, for example.
again, not understating the impact of Midway....just presenting a different opinion that it may have not been as much as the decisive turning point that historians have made it to be.
I certainly see your points as well.
Just for info the carrier Battles of the Eastern Solomons on August 24-25 and the Santa Cruz Islands on 25-27 October 1942 were part of the Guadalcanal campaign.
The surface actions around Guadalcanal are the stuff of disasters, legend and lessons. Iron Bottom Sound.