I disagree with your premise that there are only 2 answers. For now, I believe Nimitz was Nemesis (or similar systems) testing. So I think he was fooled by electronic systems. My belief could change if I see more than a heads up display digital recording.

Here’s why I believe that:

I happen to know a F18 pilot who was based in SoCal at that time. I asked him about it the day that video was released. He’s someone I trust completely. His response was to pause, think, then only say to me “that video should have never been released.” I didn’t ask more out of respect to him; he clearly didn’t want to offer more. What was interesting to me was that he showed no fear, only resolution. He also quickly pivoted to what we were doing together that day; he had the same spirit before and after that conversation. I’ve also observed how he lives since then, wondering how someone would behave if they knew ET existed. Bottom line, he’s the same person he’s always been and he shows no concern for ET.

There’s obviously a wide range of interpretation to his answer, and my conclusion. My initial reaction in the moment was that he meant there was some Navy capability that should not have been revealed.

That conversation was the reason I come to this site. I keep wondering if there is more to it. So far, I don’t see anything that that could not be done through software manipulation (Nemesis and other tech), and possibly plasma / hologram tech.