A lone cruiser will usually lose a direct fight with a battleship or battlecruiser, but that is not necessarily the design test. A sufficiently dangerous cruiser can force the heavier ship to choose between withdrawing and accepting damage that may prevent escape from the next opponent. Guns and torpedoes therefore create deterrence and mission-kill risk without offering equal odds of sinking the enemy. That can justify a large cruiser at far less than a Hood-sized displacement.
Notable Point · 1:36:05-1:37:36
A cruiser can deter a ship it cannot defeat
A large cruiser need not win a duel with a battlecruiser if the risk of guns and torpedoes makes the stronger ship abandon its mission.