What would losing fifteen American carriers have changed?

What difference did the withdrawal of some American carriers make to the operation?

A substantial carrier force remained. Sinking all fifteen carriers cited in the response would have delayed American operations, although the delay was judged unlikely to last very long.

Roughly fifteen carriers remained at the anchorage. Sinking all fifteen would have affected American operations and caused some delay. The estimate is that the delay probably would not have been very large. Achieving even that result would first have required an attacking force capable of sinking fifteen carriers.