Why 'pre-dreadnought' can hide nineteenth-century change

Is HMS Devastation best understood as an early pre-dreadnought?

It is an important precursor, but classifications such as steam battleship give the era its own identity rather than defining it chiefly by Dreadnought.

HMS Devastation is an important modern-battleship precursor, although 'pre-dreadnought' is a poor dominant label for earlier ships. Period labels can make history accessible, yet a prefix such as 'pre-' defines a vessel negatively through what came later. Categories such as steam battleships and Royal Sovereigns describe ships through their own technology and operating context. The steam and ironclad eras had their own design problems and developmental stages rather than existing only as a prologue to HMS Dreadnought.