Ranger and Wasp reveal the desired air group

Do American escort carriers and light carriers show that the US Navy preferred small carriers?

No. They expanded wartime aviation capacity, while Ranger and Wasp show a continuing effort to put large air groups on treaty-limited hulls.

USS Ranger and USS Wasp were efforts to place air groups approaching one hundred aircraft on treaty-limited hulls of roughly 15,000 tons. Their compact size did not imply a preference for a compact aviation effect. Wartime escort and light carriers expanded aviation capacity when the United States urgently needed more flight decks. That necessity did not make them the preferred model. Their use separates an emergency choice of available hulls from the capability a navy consistently tries to maximize.