No, there were deficiencies at Pearl harbor to be sure, but it was not a sitting duck. Had the radar been running properly or had the Ward’s report been treated the way it should have, we would have been on alert when the Japanese arrived. The forces there were enough to have given Kido Butai a bloody nose.
The Fleet was moved to Hawaii in 1940 for one reason. That is where it needed to be to deter or fight Japan. Japan chose to fight the US because the US opposed Japan’s invasion of China.
Pearl Harbor was a lucky strike, but not lucky enough, because it only slowed down our response by about six months, tops.
I’m thinking that you have it right, but I’d also love to know what the conversation was, at the brass level, relating to the possibility of Japan attacking us at Pearl before the event. Even with a few minutes warning, practically all the ships would have been lost, is my guess. The radar fiasco was huge, but other preventive steps should have been taken in my mind, given the size of the fleet at Pearl.