You cannot replace a CVOL with a STVOL. STOVL don't have the range that CVOL aircraft do as the "hovering" ability needed for landing is a gas guzzler.
Secondly you'd have to redesign the bow of every US carrier with a ramp for take off, which would screw up the operations of other older aircraft that operate from a carrier flight deck.
If the Pentagon refuses to pay for relocating the arrestor hook it sure as hell not going to pay for redesigning all 11 Carriers. Nor should it, why should taxpayers pay for LM screwups...AGAIN!
Its a disaster. Either LM fixes the flaw themselves or the entire F-35C project is scrapped.
LM has been disengenious about the F-35 from the very start, first with the gross cost overruns and now this.
And of course BOEING is going to cry "foul" because carrier operations was a basic requirement in the JSF program. Their X-32 might have won the JSF competition had this flaw been discovered sooner.