Not at all sure how that is relevant - or indeed accurate.
From memory, the six US CVBG on Desert Storm spent a lot of their time in the Red Sea or off Oman, which was hardly a "short trip". Only Midway (?) ended up in the Persian Gulf, adjacent to KTO. The more "recent experience" would appear to refer to OEF where a CVBG sits in the IO and provides ATO lines over Afghanistan - not exactly an exemplar.
The UK requirement was set against a number of scenarios developed in the mid-90s and the SGR derived from them. From memory they didn't include a large amount of CAS (except for one specific scenario), nor were FIAC a particular driver. They did include some significant warfighting phases and remain (generically) relevant.
The point about larger decks is that up to a certain point you're driven by safe parking requirement, which is largely about package size. Beyond which you get to a slightly bigger deck that enables reduced manning for a fixed SGR or a better SGR for a given deck manning setup, because you're not constantly re-spotting for the next launch / recovery serial - it's a marginal effect. The UK teams all went to visit Navy Lakehurst and interacted with the guys doing what became the Ford flightdeck design to examine operating drivers.