As the man who had to argue with the US General in charge of the air war to get the SHARs into the ATO, I can assure you that the SHAR role in ALLIED FORCE was completely inconsequential and nothing more than a political event. The US were dismayed by the fact that precious fuel from the Tristar had to be diverted to the SHAR instead of going to more precious assets like the EA6 and Tornado ECR. In the end I had to say - I would have trouble justifying to my MOD why our tankers weren't available to refuel our fighters and he risked losing the lot. Even then they only took a 2 hour window on the Macedonian air defence cap. Of course if the RN had been prepared to position the ship more up-threat then fuel wouldn't have been a problem.
There is some harsh banter about but the SHAR is obsolescent and as Jackonico reasonably points out it had to go to make headroom for other desires.
Oh and if I were off to war tomorrow I would rather be in an F3 than a SHAR.