Essex and British light fleets offered different jet-conversion advantages

Were Essex-class carriers or British light fleet carriers better suited to operating jets?

Essex offered more capability after a more demanding conversion; British light fleets provided a smaller, structurally useful and less manpower-intensive route into carrier aviation.

The Essex class could deliver more aviation capacity after conversion, but its wooden flight deck and superstructure arrangement required substantial work. British light fleet carriers made the flight deck part of the hull's strength structure. Their smaller hulls required fewer crew. That made them practical entry-level carriers for navies unable to operate an Essex-sized ship, a pattern likened to smaller nineteenth-century ironclads.