I’d like to state for the record battleships of dreadnaught and higher tonnage were kind of worthless.
Just think of all the extra resources and manpower the Germans would have had if they never put so much into the High Seas Fleet. I get the “Fleet in Being” stuff, but really, once one power has an edge they can keep ahead of you on, then why bother chasing them on that front.
Also, you read all the gunnery reports from WWI and WWII, hitting enemy ships with massive caliber gunnery was speculative at best. Sure you get a couple lucky shots like against the Hood etc, but mostly firing huge shells long range against moving targets was very inaccurate.
Yes radar fire control fixed some of that, but by then battleships were obsolete anyway. WWII naval combat was dominated by the sub, the destroy, the carrier and the plane.
Finally, there were only like 4-5 major naval battles in all of history that involved large metal ships duking it out with caliber guns. (Tushima, Jutland, Falklands (WWI), maybe 2nd Naval Battle Guadalcanal, maybe Manila Bay)
Big metal ships with guns just weren’t that great. Maybe necessary for a spell, but mostly better to look at than to regard as an effective instrument of national policy.