[2019] Ark Royal - I don't get some of these decisions.

British and Commonwealth Warships Camouflage of WW2, volume 2 states that those two octuple pom-poms were added in 1940, with the camouflage Ark Royal has in our game, page 113.
And Skuas were completely removed only in April 41, so the ship state if of late 1940 - early 1941.

We couldn't pass an opportunity to make Ark Royal with Swordfishes as torpedo bombers.

And let me tell you - they're quite good. Yes, they are quite slow compared to other CV, but you have 3 of them in attacking squadron - so more HP per squadron than Furious. And even more, their turns are quite tight, which allows you to easily aim your torps where you want.
Similar stuff with bombers, but they have different bombs, but there are a lot of them. Their main purpose is starting fires, of course.
Furious drops 12 bombs in one attack with 29% fire chance. Ark Royal - 24 bombs with 13.7% fire chance. Yes, Furious bombers have more attack power, but they aren't as maneuverable and squadron has less total hp.
Attack power of Attack planes is the same - 12 rockets per squadron. But again, as with bombers, you have better maneuverability, though it isn't as pronounced.
So, as a result, we have two carriers who both have their strong and weak points and competitive with one another.

Yeah, In my first battle with her after test I easily did 100k damage, so I would disagree with that statement.