The way I see it, either there is indeed a cutout amidships which accounts for the no.2 starboard elevator, which currently is inconveniently hidden from view by the annoyingly placed crane and roof, and so in the absence of a more unobstructed photo or an alternate angle on the hull there's really not much basis to draw a conclusion other than the common expectation that this would be similar in layout to the Ford class, hence in a 3-elevator config it stands to reason the no.2 starboard elevator would be as indicated a la the Ford class i.e. with both starboard elevators forward of the island;
Or this just isn't a Ford-pattern at least where elevator placements is concerned, where a starboard elevator which is positioned further aft a la the Nimitz class's no.3 elevator near the stern may be the placement PLAN designers have decided on -
... which would also be more or less consistent with previous PLAN configs of each elevator forward and aft of the island in between like you said.
Personally though, from a hangar operations standpoint, if one takes into consideration the possibility that 004 may retain the use of turntables for aircraft conveyance like 001, 002 and 003 before it -
... then I can see an argument where having a more rearward starboard elevator that aligns (or near-aligns) with the port elevator could be a more efficient and space-saving layout, as only two turntables would then be required where the rear one can serve both elevators -
... as opposed to 3 turntables for 3 distantly located elevators, which could result in less aircraft accommodations and more complex handling -
And since the Nimitz has been invoked, then there's the improbable albeit not-impossible proposition of it being a 4-elevator config, like the Nimitz class. In any case all we can do is still speculate for now.
I dunno, that picture of yours looks to be artificially filtered to heck, assuming it hasn't also been so adulterated, seeing as how garbled the text on the red crane looks -
It should correctly be 'DALIAN SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY CO., LTD.' instead -
There may indeed be an elevator opening amidships as I explained, but personally I wouldn't rely on that specific image of yours as evidence.
