Why Queen Elizabeth-class carriers lack catapults

What is the real reason the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers were not fitted with catapults?

Cost and the redesign needed to add them, within a two-ship program already constrained by short-term savings.

The Treasury signaled that the Royal Navy would receive only two carriers regardless of size, so the service selected the largest hulls it could secure. Adding catapults after the design had been framed around short takeoff and vertical landing aircraft would have required substantial redesign and more money. Slowing construction to reduce annual spending increased the total program cost to roughly the price of three and a half carriers, although Britain received two. A third hull would also have made maintenance and readiness problems less disruptive by giving the fleet more operational depth.