Yep both things are true - it would be harder to operate in the gulf today than it was in 1990 because of better drones and missiles, but also they are short of ships and it’s limiting their options.

They don’t have enough ships to simultaneously attack Iran, defend US bases and their gulf “allies” and also enforce this blockade, so they’re forced to pick and choose and it is constraining them strategically.

Having twice as many ships wouldn’t solve the fundamental problem (they’re fairly screwed either way at this point), but it would give them more optionality