Even old-school steam catapults can actually handle much more than that, the USN C13-2 also used by the French can throw 80,000lb to 140 knots on a 300ft stroke. However the problem with the previous generation of RN carriers was that their cat-decks were too short, about half the length of the US contemporaries, hence the need for extending nose-gear to achieve high AoA on launch. They were basically wasting steam on each stroke.