The problem is not the ride, it is how often can it fire off. It has to meet the same combat sortie rate as wire systems.
Aircrews though seem to like EMALS. The Navy Times quotes Lt. Cmdr. Jamie Struck of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 as saying that being shot off the deck felt different with EMALS. “With the old steam catapults, there’s all that steam, that energy built up and as soon as that hold-back lets go, it can be kind of violent, a lot of bouncing before you get off the deck. EMALS was different . . . the hold-back release was less abrupt than what I’m used to, which is good.”
As the Navy's accountants and operations analysts no doubt pointed out, less stress during launches adds up to longer service life for the Navy's overworked and aging carrier air assets. Expensive and troublesome in development EMALS may be, but it will save billions once the kinks get worked out.