Hanging by it’s fingers is sort of accurate. But not quite. The USN’s problems in late 1942 were primarily an equipment shortage, not enough carriers, not enough tankers.
Then in 1943 the Essex carrier Pez Dispenser opened up...
No matter what happened in 1942, the USN was going to hit the Japanese Empire with overwhelming force in 1943 - 1944.
The Japanese did have a strategy to deal with that. Basically, as long as they had more carriers than the Americans could produce in a year they could periodically swamp them, defeat them, and keep their numbers inferior. Dan Carlin referred to this strategy as "mowing the lawn". It's not a great strategy. It meant that they could not afford to lose a single big battle, and unfortunately for them that happened at Midway.
That certainly affected U.S. strategies...
However, as most of the early, post Midway, naval battles showed, the USN was consistent in the rookie errors committed during battle...
Things didn't turn around until Halsey replaced the incompetents and turned things around...
If you listen to the post-battle reports in late 1942 and early 1943, those errors cost many lives and ships...
However, the USN listened and learned and became unstoppable by late 1943...