Bonk - The Crew of the Mk 9 in the Oman were attempting a reversionary take off. That blows your arguement out of the water.
Me thinks you miss the obvious: wires on land; no wires over the sea. We all accept that we would operate witout recce if the need arose, but we value life too much during training: waste of money - I beg to disagree. What price a fatality due to a wire strike?