I'm not really sold on the MRLS. Given the size of the ship and the navigational problems that brings along, would you want to get close enough inshore to use it? Imagine the kind of tug you'd need to pull it of the bottom if it got stuck somewhere.
Also, presumably budgets are death also applies to the other side, so presumably it would have to face the mother of all counter fires if it were to venture into hostile coastal waters.
You're absolutely right, but the MLRS is really not intended for shore bombardment. It's primarily a cheap and cheerful way to move the local ASW problem a bit further offboard, deploying sonobuoys, anti-torpedo torpedos, and Limbo-class depth charges out to 30km or so, in the event that weather is bad, helos are busy elsewhere, etc etc. Single sonobuoys and nuclear depth bombs are also available for longer-range use (as are, of course, Sea Lance successors). As I think I've said here, my partners and I envision squadrons of 45kt 15000-ton super-Alfas to be by far the most pressing budgets-are-death threat. GMLRS are probably shipped too (range maybe
100km?), but that isn't the primary reason the launchers are aboard.
Note that one might not want to get within 50km of shore, but there are more than a couple of channels less wide than that which might need to be transited in some case.
WhyMe, virtually no ladders are shown, so I'm not sure to what you are referring.