This is the Indo-Pacific PRC containment chess game at work, and to do it effectively you need a big Navy. China will make moves of its own to counter everything we do, like dredge up man-made islands. That tactic is reminiscent of Imperial Japan's "unsinkable aircraft carrier" island defense lines of WW2.
Using islands as unsinkable carriers is fine, except the enemy always knows where to find them.
I'm cool with a big Navy but I don't think we will ever go shit-hot full-bore war-to-the-hilt with the PRC. We're getting into more of a cold war posture there, where everybody spends big on muscle as a threat and deterrent but nobody actually pulls the trigger.