Why treaty pressure produced the Crown Colony cruisers

What would stop the Crown Colony class from being built in a non-treaty environment when the Royal Navy urgently needed cruisers?

Without treaty pressure, Britain would be more likely to continue with larger Belfast-type Town-class cruisers that the Admiralty already liked.

The smaller cruiser followed government efforts to keep the treaty system functioning. Without those limits, the Admiralty preferred additional Belfast-type Town-class cruisers because it regarded them as an effective design. The Navy's operational preference therefore differed from the political and diplomatic constraints that shaped what it could order.