I got lots of Navy friends. Can't say this around them, obviously.
But, when you have the ability to launch a B2 from Whiteman AFB in Missouri, have it fly to Afghanistan (or anywhere else in the world) without landing, deliver a payload, then return home - there simply isn't much need to park a carrier group off their coast. Perhaps it works for intimidation, but I'd think it's far more intimidating for a country to not know if/when a strike is coming, and just have their city explode in the middle of the night.
It's why those old Alfred Hitchcock movies were always scarier than the modern flicks. You never knew what was coming, and often your own imagination scared you more than the movie. Nowadays, they show you everything, and it's often far less scary. Gorier and sicker, but not scarier.