One argument against fleet carriers assumed that any hot Cold War would become nuclear and end quickly. That scenario discounted the value of sea-based air power in a prolonged conventional conflict or in wars outside the central NATO confrontation. The Invincible class became famous precisely because its ships served in the Falklands and other operations that the short-war premise did not explain. Their usefulness also demonstrated that the replacement capability needed greater size and endurance. The later Queen Elizabeth class can therefore be read partly as recognition of the gap created by the earlier assumption.
Chapter · 49:35-50:20
The short-war assumption behind Britain's carrier gap
Britain accepted the loss of fleet-carrier capability partly by assuming a hot Cold War would become nuclear before conventional naval endurance mattered.