I just tried, four Thunderstorms with Heavy Pikes did it without losses and could coordinate more or less globally. So not true.
Stormlances most likely work as well, and even Heavy Stingrays might do something depending on luck (and with heavy casualties).
Not if the Battleships fly around and intercept your planes, especially the transports that are on a timer before the UFOs take off again. And Thunderstorms are better than Ravens, IMO.
That was my point, you need either several strike bases or sufficient hangars to base-hop. The hangar requirements are the same or even worse in the latter case.
Which is a problem with the mod as a strategy game. You should be taking enough losses on the ground and be presented with enough at least moderately useful missions that this kind of 'doomstacking' is impossible to do, or leads to serious penalties.
But I want to accumulate crap, like a proper loot goblin secret paramilitary! What kind of secret anti-alien task force does not have rows and rows of containment tanks filled with captured aliens, and stores bursting with super-secret alien tech? Are you trying to run some sort of cheap knockoff?!
Edit: I think the one thing that looks increasingly appealing to me is to make the opposition actually coordinate their missions so just hopping from one to the other with the Kitsune and occasionally swatting a UFO won't work. Something like the UFO swarms/waves adopted by several (most?) more modern X-Com-likes.
I don't have any problems with my playing style at all. In the future, after a couple of patches, I will try to play 3 bases. And I will also do defensive construction. This requires compromise solutions and frees the game from unnecessary garbage management. I don't understand why you impose your style of play.
But the main thing I'm trying to explain is that the expansion of hangars is not necessary. This is a strong simplification.