Why the flush-deck destroyers were not war-emergency designs

Should the Wickes and Clemson classes be classified as war-emergency destroyers?

No; they were wartime orders, but not reduced-capability emergency designs, and most were built after the war.

The timing of an order does not by itself define a war-emergency design. Wickes and Clemson were not materially stripped down compared with their predecessors. Most were also completed after the First World War, so the emergency label obscures their capabilities and production history.