So wanted to follow up on this because I was just watching this: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/12857933 vid about psyops. And something clicked for me as an alternative explanation (which I think Commiejones nailed):

Projecting power.

Suppose that you’re correct and the US can’t actually do much in this situation. But they still want to strike fear into liberation forces in the world; they still want people to believe that at the press of a button, they could start doing strikes in Yemen and make a big impact. So they do this media psyop thing where they were going to do it and called it off at the last minute. If one believes this, it implies that they are fully capable of doing it and only strategic sense stopped them. But what if the logistics of it are actually shit? Or what if they were considering doing it but ran into issues with the equipment? By painting it as they have, it looks like the mad king is pulled back from the brink but the empire is also very powerful. On the other hand, the point of view that they can’t actually do much about the situation in Yemen means the empire’s power in the region is heavily damaged; which more accurately syncs up with Iran methodically debasing the empire in the region.