And Midway still ended up with a number of cards falling the US way to be the decisive victory that it was. Might not have made a difference at the end of the day--but it turned the US to a much more offensive position earlier than it might otherwise have had. And greatly weakened Japanese options for a negotiated peace.
Not to forget, Yamamoto predicted a six months time window for Japan after Pearl Habour. After these six months, he knew Japan has lost. And the Japanese carried on for qyite a bot longer than that.
But yeah, the US Navy played the cards they had incredibly well. They got somewhat lucky with the promotion of Nimitz. The proboem so is, as it is with the Soviets in WW2 and every single WW2 general who managed to write a well selling book about hinself, to see past the individual hero stories at the bigger picture.
Personnaly, I think the biggest plunder of the Japanese was to not take out the harbour infrastructure at Pearl Habour. Not that it wouod have changed anything in the long run so. That, and that they failed abysmally at submarine and anti-submarine warfare.
