A cruiser-hulled alternative to the Ticonderoga class

How much better would the Ticonderoga class have been if it used a cruiser hull instead of a Spruance-derived destroyer hull?

It would likely have been more stable and carried a larger missile load, with Long Beach suggesting the scale of the opportunity.

The Long Beach hull provides a rough reference for a cruiser-based Ticonderoga. A larger platform would be more stable and could carry more missiles. The advantage comes from a hull designed around cruiser-scale volume rather than from the designation alone.