Hardly surprising when you consider that they are not really aircraft carriers at all.
They were introduced as "through deck cruisers", and previous to that "command cruisers".
Absolutely right, so far as the second sentence is concerned, but don't forget that this nomenclature was a Baldrick-like "cunning plan" to get the INVINCIBLE Class aircraft carriers approved in the first place, just as the County Class DLGs were called destroyers to get them approved, even though they in turn were virtually replacements for cruisers ....
Jack