Why sailing rigs lost value on steam cruisers

Was a full sailing rig more valuable on an unprotected cruiser than on a protected cruiser?

Its value depended less on armour than on engine reliability and coal access; as both improved, rigging increasingly obstructed machinery and armament layout.

Sail retained value while engines and fuel supply were unreliable, but that advantage declined as steam plants and coaling networks improved. A sailing rig was not free endurance because masts, rigging, and working space constrained arcs of fire and the placement of machinery. Designers first had to fit the propulsion systems needed to move the hull and then accommodate the sailing plant around them. Weapons, stores, and crew spaces inherited the remaining compromises. The transition from sail to steam was a problem of whole-ship arrangement as much as a choice between power sources.