Carriers are vitally important to fleets in HoI4: if you don’t want to build any of your own, you should still plan to specifically target and kill enemy carriers. As of the most recent patch, fleets with the Carrier Air advantage impose positioning penalties on the opposing fleet as wel...
but consume more manpower, and are not as good at targeting specific units. “Heavy” aircraft, due to their range and their intended targets are generally better at the strategic level.