1) If aircraft carriers are dead, why is every other major navy trying to get hold of them? The
americans, the
chinese, the russians are keeping their old one in service and
talking wistfully about making a bigger one
2) There are economies of scale with aircraft carriers - twice the displacement gets a lot more than twice the aircraft carried and sortie rate, and isn't twice the cost. A large aircraft carrier like HMS QE can support a stupendous amount of drones, and given the F-35 buy rate there'll be plenty of room in the hangar. Any pint-sized drone carrier will be more likely to be overwhelmed when facing a full sized carrier, given that they can't carry as much capability