High-angle main batteries could turn some fatal bomb hits into misses or damage that dockyards can repair. Keeping Afridi and Gurkha, or preserving ships through Crete and earlier operations, matters because repaired hulls can return during a long war while replacements consume much more time and industrial capacity. The same capability might encourage prewar repeat orders for Tribal destroyers as a ready-made answer to the fleet's anti-aircraft gap. The historical Royal Navy was relatively well prepared for air attack only against the low standard of 1939. The common 4.7-inch system would raise it comfortably above that contemporary bar, while still looking inadequate when judged against the far denser defences of 1945.
Notable Point · 1:07:22-1:10:32
Damage instead of loss is a long-war advantage
The most defensible gain is fewer total losses, more repairable ships, and a Royal Navy whose 1939 air defence clears the contemporary standard more comfortably.