Glojo
"That thing" - Lusty - is working up ready to assume the role of duty LPH when Ocean goes into upkeep very shortly. That includes provision of a ready multi-spot deck deck to allow various FAA squadrons to maintain deck currency. I hardly classify that as a "waste of money". I'm sure you remember that when designed her primary role was operation of helicopters rather than f/w, so I'm somewhat at a loss at the phrase "never designed for", though I will concede troop accom, assault routes etc are far from ideal.
As for "plan B", I would hazard a guess that it's a binary option. Either :
a) Bite the bullet and implement CTOL conversion (noting that we have now missed our place in the queue for ship sets of EMALS/EAR)
b) Bite the other bullet, abandon naval f/w ops (and therefore any notion of power projection ops), sell the ships - assuming a buyer can be found, which is a big assumption.
Neither of these are particularly difficult to work out. What is a bit difficult to fathom is the almost gleeful anticipation of some on here (not you btw) of the B being cancelled. As should be well known, I personally would have preferred the C option for the UK, but it ain't going to happen unless B gets canned and then only if the money can be found. There are a number of folk however, who appear to be hoping for a B cancellation, largely so an "I told you so" T-shirt can be worn on the CVF/F35 as a whole, rather than any sensible formulation of defence policy / capability.