Why flexible warships can hide the fleet size needed in war

Why do navies appear to overlook the value of large, flexible platforms?

They value them, but peacetime budgets fund serial tasks while war demands many tasks in parallel, requiring more hulls.

One flexible ship can move between peacetime missions as demands arise in sequence. War can require those roles at the same time, so the navy needs several hulls even if each can perform every task. A versatile ship can therefore make the peacetime case for buying additional ships harder to explain. Force planning must account for simultaneous demands when deciding how many platforms to fund.