In the beginning was STOVL.
That was the U.K. ticket into JSF, which was going to be as cheap as chips, rule the skies and take over the one-superpower world.
Nobody said a word about cat-arrest until 2003 (before the F-35B packed on a couple of extra tons) when it was briefly considered as the ship design was being finalized (and when the French were involved with PA2) and then nothing was said until 2010.