Ship damage now is too either/or with no indication of anything. For example, after the carrier and/or cruiser start taking serious damage, it's prudent to navigate them more conservatively, steer them away from the max danger.
On the other hand, when fleet is fresh and undamaged, can be more aggressive, especially in getting in closer for lvts.
The system is monitoring damage to see when to sink the ships, so perhaps it wouldn't be unreasonable to visualize this with a thermometer damage bar and make it available to ship gunners via the Alt D?
Could be many variations on this, of course, but some sort of Alt D damage indication is definitely warranted -- within AH's other priorities, naturally.