The class had real potential, though its casemate battery was flawed and the Royal Navy did not pursue an all-big-gun cruiser successor. Battlecruisers initially appeared to offer more capability for only a modest increase in size, but their growth changed the comparison. First World War losses then made it easier to dismiss armoured cruisers without asking whether those losses resulted from misuse. The force-structure argument remains that cruisers can inflict useful damage and protect convoys even when they cannot survive a direct fight with a battlecruiser.
Notable Point · 1:11:39-1:15:02
The class’s lost place after the battlecruiser
The closing assessment treats the class as capable but overtaken by the expanding battlecruiser, while warning against judging cruisers only by their vulnerability to capital ships.