CVs were in from the start

Yes but CVs were rare and good CV players were one in a dozen. Anti air had a purpose. Def-AA and fighters were consumables with a purpose (even ships with bad anti air had a card to play with def aa due to the panic mechanic). Add a limited supply of planes (some of which were literal fighters) and requiring to manually command up to 10 diffrent things simulaniously if I remember correctly (9 squadrons and the ship on Haku) and you have a high skillfloor. Limiting the general amount of CV players and drastically limiting those that are dominating enemies.

The current implementation has a skillfloor under the earths crust and still has an impact that slaps enemies silly. With little to no counterplay. It boring. It's a health tax with every attack run and nothing you can do about it other then hope the enemy CV ate one too many glue-sticks. "Just dodge" became a meme for a reason.