Well for Seaplane tenders the US & JP win this especially Japan example with the Chitose class with a forward battery of four 127 mm cannons for either defence or offensive an carries a large quantity of F1M’s & E13A’s which can be used to bombs ships then return to reload if they survive.
The vessel is heavy at 15000 tonnes but makes 28kts & could either have a destroyer or cruiser spawn.
HMAS Albatros a 4500 tonne ship with the capability of nine aircraft which could make 22kt & had an armament of four 4.7" cannons, two Pom-Pom’s & crap load of 7.7 mm MG’s.
There’s also the Clemson class conversions which only had a few 3" cannons & LAA but iirc carried one floatplane.
These ships could be the earliest options if wanted most will essentially imo play out like the Abdiel class Minelayers but have the option to deploy aircraft for bombing/torpedo attack run, could cap points an scout for torpedo spreads.
Aviation Cruisers, Pre 1944 AA Refit Tone class as example carries six E13A’s & or the Ōyodo class with E13A’s & E15’s.
They will preform action as a general cruiser by can launch floatplanes for bombing runs & defence against certain enemies.
And if we go really far with this option things like the Project 1143 Kiev class Heavy Aviation Cruiser Baku could be added up around 7.0+ equipped with twelve Yakovlev Yak-38’s armed with FAB-100’s but the cruiser itself barring the P-700 AShM’s would be a formidable ship with it’s 2× AK-100’s, 8× AK-630’s, 4× RBU-6000 & 10× torpedo tubes. (odd thing this thing is modelled internally like crazy as motherhen has pointed out in several threads already).
Light carriers,
Generally sub 20000 tonnes take example the HMS Hermes has 20 aircraft & a good defence against other ships & aircraft.
MAC ships as an even lighter 8000-12000 tonnes option making 12kts an carries three to five aircraft but gets mostly a lone 4" an either Bofors or Oerlikons or both as AA.
Hōshō at 9700 tonnes at 25kts with light armament of 25 mm AA & some 8cm AA cannons & 15 aircraft.
The USS Langley at 13000 tonnes an 15kts carries around 30 odd aircraft an has a somewhat powerful defence.
You could also put forward the HMS Vindictive pre 1923 as a carrier that can defend itself but the aircraft will be weaker then most.
These sorts would either hide away as some players would while others would push with their forces an launch attacks against enemy ships, It’s all up to the players what they would do.
Now since the new forum bloody sucks on mobile I cannot highlight parts of comments but the last bit can applied quite a lot of ships in game mainly the escort ships since they’re generally away from heavy fighting an just screening merchants or other auxiliary ships across the vase seas yet suck incredibly in game when it comes to combat or are just patrol ships that get melted in under 30 seconds while doing barely any return damage.
These are mostly ships consisting up to the size of frigates atm but at least in WT aviation vessels would be able to fight with their armament unlike WoWS which tbh sucks imo for that game but since WT allows the control of most weaponry I wouldn’t be surprised seeing such vessels top of the scoreboards just using their cannons.