Latest article I could find on the USS Gerald Ford seems to indicated that the elevators are operational, the ship has a full air wing. The "training ship" designation is not one that I'm familiar with unless you're extrapolating from statements made about crew activities while the ship was at sea working on systems test.
The Navy opened itself up for these kinds of problems by issuing contracts for design-while-build for the lead-ship. Similar thing was done for the F-35, which BTW is finally turning into the weapons system that was promised.
One of the things we have to be mindful of that "old information" never dies on the internet. It keeps getting parroted back.
I get my info from dedicated military sites written by people with connections in and out of the DOD and the various services, plus commentary from active and retired mil; you get yours from Yahoo and Navy puff pieces, and who knows if Peter Suciu knows an APC from a MBT.
As I keep pointing out its a budget matter for the Navy. They cannot continue to pour funds into fixing the unfixable after going billions of dollars over-budged already. The Navy has all but declared the once vaunted LCS ships scrappers; the DDG 1000 class is a dud and only 3 will be built. They do not have the funds to keep shoveling money down a rat hole.
The Navy is moving on to building 4 more Ford Class CVNs and a new class FFG(X) frigates.