Would 12-inch Design 472 ships be replaced sooner?

If Japan retained Design 472's 12-inch guns, would it replace those battlecruisers earlier?

Probably; they are judged less likely to receive the rebuilds that prolonged the historical Kongō class's service.

A follow-up separates the original 12-inch Design 472 proposal from a hypothetical later 14-inch version. The question places it near the arrival of 13.5-inch guns and asks whether Japan would want a new battlecruiser sooner. Earlier replacement is judged likely. Under that version of the counterfactual, the ships would probably miss the major rebuilding that kept the Kongō class in service into the Second World War.