What a Japanese naval pilot-recovery system could preserve

What effect would an Imperial Japanese Navy pilot-recovery program have from the start of the Second World War?

It could preserve experienced aviators, especially if recovered veterans trained new pilots instead of returning repeatedly to combat.

Japan possessed enough floatplanes and seaplanes to create a more deliberate aircrew-recovery effort. Saving even a quarter of downed pilots could preserve hard-won operational knowledge that otherwise disappeared with experienced aviators. Recovery alone, however, does not repair the training system if survivors are simply sent back into the same high-risk combat cycle. The larger institutional gain comes from assigning veterans to teach replacements, turning individual survival into a sustained improvement in force quality.