They're not replacements for Ocean and never have been - that's the misconception I referred to. They're carriers providing useable capability beyond the two CVS we routinely ran concurrently up until 2010 - and have always planned to reconstitute that capability starting in 2018 - with similar complements.
That naval personnel numbers were cut too far in 2010 - a fact recognised although not fully compensated for in SDSR2015 - is not down to the carriers. It's a complicated issue (going back to the ill-fated Topmast) involving poor assumptions about skills, retention etc in specific trades which also applies elsewhere.
Hanging that on the carriers is a bit like saying the RAF engineering manning issues are down to Airseeker or Poseidon....