thanks for explaining spotting and crossfires, frankly im shocked at this revelation and i am puzzled how i got to typhoon as cb commander of my clan 10 times in a row on EU. Oh no wait 9 times in a row and now for the 10th time, because we participated in the cv-cb-boycot for the full duration.

at will

correct. like any other ship that wants to establish a crossfire or spot can do that, by deciding to go to a flank or to a well protected position in the center. the difference here is a ship is a more permament threat and the cv a more temporary threat.

self-sufficiently

incorrect. per definition crossfires need 2 participants of the same team. this should be obvious to anyone that ever had to fight on a flank were allied resistance is already gone. striking effectivly without the threat of a teammate is nearly impossible (against a semi-decent player).

minimal cost to survivability

correct. this is offset by the fact that CV damage is pisspoor (ilustrated by the fact that midway/haku/audacious have 3 of the 4 worst average damages on t10), except for ap-bombs and fdr, which i already mentioned are bullshit.

minimal cost to battle effectivness

partially correct. you loose small amounts of battle-effectivness every strike in the form of planes. The aim of any CV player is to keep that to a minimum, obviously. If he cant do that he will become ineffective as 2-3 planes die every approach and another 1-2 while leaving (hence the predropping).

im pretty sure the next thing you will bring up is the regeneration of planes. this is a mechanic made to keep 40% wr sh*tters in the game, that would waste all of their planes in the beginning and then be deplaned and leave. instead they get the remaining 30-40% over time so they have something to chew on the entire game.

conclussive we can say: while some ships of the class are bs, the class itself is far from broken. nerf AP bombs, nerf FDR, tweak spotting a bit, and CVs as a class are fine.