Carriers have to replenish their stocks of weapons and fuel, as well as allow crews to maintain the aircraft. After a short intense period of operations surely a pause to regroup is essential.
Land operations are different; other units may be more readily available, or can be made so. Not the case in carrier operations where an air group will be embarked and will go through a work up period before any operations can be undertaken.
(Thank you sandiego89 - you put that much better than I did. Our postings overlapped. I agree, excellent effort by the group.)