Hood's armor changes and the risk of cancellation

What would it have taken for Hood to receive her modified armor while retaining the planned 5.5-inch gun and torpedo batteries?

Further redesign risked stopping Hood's construction altogether, leaving Britain to begin a successor class earlier.

Hood accumulated design changes after Fisher's departure and again after Jutland. Some revisions contradicted earlier ones, leaving an increasingly awkward design to finish. Her construction had advanced far enough to favor completion, while the other Admirals were less advanced. Further changes could have prevented even Hood from being completed. In that counterfactual, Britain might begin a G3-like successor a year to a year and a half earlier, bringing new ships close to completion when the Washington treaty was negotiated.