A barely started battleship could be paused with less immediate damage to fleet reinforcement plans. The King George V class was already far enough advanced to enter service during a war expected to last. Howe ultimately took 1,842 days to build, compared with 1,369 days for King George V, a difference of 473 days. Leaving an advanced hull in a yard for roughly five years consumed time and capacity while delaying a usable warship. The argument depends on each project's maturity rather than requiring every newly laid-down ship to continue unchanged.
Notable Point · 24:00-26:47
Advanced battleship hulls presented a different choice from new starts
The case for continuing the KGVs rests on the work already invested and how soon the ships could join the fleet.