HMS Argus was a useful auxiliary, not a pristine combat carrier

Was HMS Argus still a training carrier in good condition before World War II?

No. She had spent years out of commission and served as an auxiliary target-drone tender; her utility came from her hangar and flight deck, not modern combat readiness.

Argus was decommissioned, converted into a Queen Bee target-drone tender, and later recommissioned. The Queen Bees were targets for testing and training rather than combat unmanned aircraft. Her large hangar made her valuable when the Royal Navy needed a flight deck without diverting a main carrier, rather than because she was in ideal front-line condition. Argus had spent much of the previous decade in reserve and had lost her guns while serving as an auxiliary. Her survival into wartime reflects the usefulness of an adaptable experimental platform rather than evidence that she remained a pristine combat carrier.