ABDA's enduring command-and-control lesson

What underappreciated lesson does ABDA offer?

Command and control was the core weakness; a more coherent, stronger force could have altered the operational choices facing Japan.

The response argues that ABDA's weakness was not merely the quality of its ships but the absence of an effective shared command-and-control system. Different national forces could not easily create one coherent operational picture or authority structure. The counterfactual then gives Australia and New Zealand retained battlecruisers, cruisers, and a light carrier, perhaps a Unicorn-like ship. Attached to Force Z, that Dominion force would either make ABDA much stronger or compel Japan to bring a substantially larger striking force south.