From "what if" to plausible "what might have been"

The opening explains why this scenario prompted sustained thought about strategy and the choices behind the dreadnought era. A loose "what if" differs from a "what might have been" grounded in options that historical decision-makers could genuinely have considered. An option may have been rejected because it did not fit the needs, criteria, or priorities of its own time rather than because it was technically impossible. Recovering those alternatives turns the later fleet comparison into a study of decision-making instead of an exercise in hindsight. The question throughout is why a navy chose one plausible path over another.