Warhammer ships as cities with inherited crews

Would the enormous ships of Warhammer 40,000 really need to be overcrowded and squalid?

Machinery, unequal space allocation, bureaucracy, and growing populations can leave crews overcrowded despite the enormous hull volume.

A Warhammer 40,000 warship can have abundant internal volume while its lower-deck population lives in squalor. One proposed explanation is that troop accommodation remains reserved for absent regiments because the bureaucracy will not reassign it to the crew. Reactors and gun decks also occupy space that cannot simply become comfortable living quarters. Over centuries, self-replacing crews and informal populations can grow beyond the ship's intended complement. The comparison with real navies concerns the consequences of treating sailors as expendable: poor living conditions can produce resentment and an unreliable crew. Cramped accommodation can still be tolerable when organized well, and the discussion distinguishes it from neglect and unequal access to space.