Hey again Jockey,
I actually use both angled runway and straight runway types since I use WW2 carriers such as IJN Akagi and modern carriers such as USS Forrestal. In all cases, my AI planes land on the stern wires. I do not use the bow cats for take off, that's because using cross-wind runways does not work on angled carriers, my guess is that's because the angle's not opened enough. No matter how hard I tried with the Airport Design Editor, it never worked anyway, so I use the same runway for both landing and take-off, meaning the AI planes start rolling from the stern to take-off.
Now I must be totally honest with you and confess that I cheat : I scale all my scenery ships, carriers and their escort at 2, thus doubling their size. That is why your method -empty weight lowered and trust doubled- works so well, actually : all runways are long enough to handle take-offs and landings. And also, it's much better for me to park the planes as there is more space to do so with the Airport Design Editor. There is a bit of clipping sometimes when planes, depending on their wingspan, are taxiing but it's not bad and does not bother me.
And I'm 100% happy with that.
Inserting a few screen shots...
By the way, don't mind my colors, they're all fictittious and so are the flight plans...