Why carrier competition differed from the dreadnought arms race

Why was there no carrier arms race on the same pattern as the dreadnought race?

Because carriers matured during wartime and were built for immediate operational need, leaving a different competitive pattern from the peacetime dreadnought race.

Timing is the central distinction. The carrier came of age while the major navies were already fighting and urgently expanding their fleets. By the end of the war, the powers that wanted carriers generally possessed them, and Britain had built a large share of the total. Carrier competition was intense, but it did not follow the same public peacetime sequence as the earlier dreadnought race.