Treaty limits shaped the Crown Colony cruisers

Without treaty restrictions, would the Royal Navy still have built Crown Colony-class cruisers in their historical form?

No. The class was defined by the Second London Naval Treaty, so an unconstrained design would have taken a different form.

The answer cautions that removing the treaty also removes the design conditions that produced the historical Crown Colony class. Its displacement and compromises reflect the Second London Naval Treaty's ceiling as well as construction timing, not an unconstrained statement of Royal Navy preference. The watch point is useful for separating a navy's ideal requirement from the ship it can legally and financially build.