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"But they were also retofitted as cruise missile launch platforms - their new big guns and lots of them IIRC."

And those same cruise missiles are carried on cruisers, destroyers and submarines. The only difference is those ships don't have 16 inch guns. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they were there for us in Beirut and in the first Gulf War, but overall the jobs they did in the 80's were able to be done by other ships. They were brought out of Mothballs as a sort of message to the world, the age of Jimmy Carter's inept Navy are over. The bad assed American Navy is back. What better way to announce that than to have 16 inch gun bohemoths cruising around the world to dock in foreign ports. Where people could look on those guns and crap their pants thinking I don't want to piss Reagan off...

but overall the jobs they did in the 80's were able to be done by other ships

People sometimes forget that the primary reason why the Iowas were brought out of mothballs was NOT providing gunfire support to troops ashore. Or popping of Tomahawk Land Attak Missiles (TLAMS) at an enemy's interior. It was as counterbalances to the Soviet Navy's Kirov-class battlecruisers.

The operational scenario was to have an Iowa-centered SAG (Surface Action Group) steam out in front of a CVBG or two by a few hundred miles as the Soviets streamed their naval forces out of Kola/down through the GIUK Gap or Vladivostok and then chew those naval formations apart with TASMs (Tomahawk Anti-Ship Missiles) and Harpoons while the CVBGs provided top-cover to the SAG.

The Iowas were available (reactivated within a couple years) large (could mount boxes for 32 Tomahawks and 16 Harpoons), long-ranged (could act as the centerpiece of a missile-battery based task force) and armored (could shrug off hits), at a time when getting large amounts of Tomahawks out to the fleet (with VLS aboard the Ticonderoga Flight IIs, retrofitted Spruances and the Burkes) was going to take some time.

The 16" gunfire support role was an added benefit that produced a win-win with the USMC.

[And those same cruise missiles are carried on cruisers, destroyers and submarines. The only difference is those ships don’t have 16 inch guns. ]

I believe the 16 inch armour hull was more important. (maybe it is 12”)