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The Coral Sea, Saratoga and Independence as all could easily handle the U.K.’s Fleet of F-4s(that last flew off the Ark Royal in 1979) which were moved to the midway point and only needed a carrier.

I'm not sure about that. The RAF FGR.2s that were reworked RN FG-1s would have had two major issues in operating off US carriers. Both related to their Spey (vice the J-79s of USAF, USN and USMC Phantoms) powerplants and tailoring to operations off the old Ark Royal.

First, the exhaust for the Speys produced different blast patterns. Both because the exhausts were significantly larger than the J-79 and because they were positioned somewhat more downward in order to provide additional lift during the short cat-runs off the Ark. During cross-decking exercises in the 1970s, the RN FG.1s inflicted a fair amount of heat-related damage onto the USN carriers (Indy and Sara, iirc) jet blast deflectors and flight decks.

Second, for operations off of Ark the FG.1s were equipped with a second nose-gear oleo, again as a way of compensating for the shorter catapults this time by pointing the nose up higher and thus conveying a steeper angle of attack on launch. The nose-gear reverted to a single oleo configuration when the aircraft were converted to FGR.2 standard for RAF use. Since the Speys made the Brit Phantoms quite a bit heavier than their J-79 equipped counterparts with an only slightly better maximum thrust (and thrust that was optimized for different operational conditions than the J-79), IIRC while the US catapults could get the FGR.2 into the air, there would be significant carriage constraints in doing so.

Now, the RAF did move a good number of FGR.2s to Ascension during the war, but only to provide CAP. However, had the Brits been serious about using a US big-deck, they would have forward-deployed the RAF Buccaneer force as well (since the Buccs were former RN carrier planes) ... AND would have made moves to get their pilots carrier qualified (which would have taken a LOT of time). Operating a conventional jet off of a carrier takes a heck of a lot of practice ... significantly more than operating a VSTOL platform like the Harrier.

I was quoting my Senior Chief, who was a young airman in Norfolk during the Falkland’s War. He was on the Indy and said that a large number of U.K. Officers were in Norfolk assessing which carrier would be best to handle their F-4s. According to him this was the most far fetched approach if the they had lost the HMS Hermes as she was the best of the two carriers they fielded. The Iwo class could handle the Harries, but was more a Helo carrier than Harrier Carrier as I worked with the Guam in the mid 1990’s. A big deck carrier of the Midway or Forest Class would have been a better selection for a mix of F-4s and Harriers. Heck Reagan could have loaned them the old Lexington CV-16, if they just wanted to operate Harriers from a big deck.