Gaming balance and historical performance answer different needs. A game usually needs comparable chances across technology tiers and a ruleset in which a player's early mistake does not make the entire match pointless. Historical ships and institutions were never designed to provide that kind of fairness. Their in-game statistics can be useful mechanics without providing reliable evidence for actual capability. Balance decisions should therefore stay out of naval-history claims.
Notable Point · 1:21:10-1:21:40
Game balance is not the same as historical performance
A short aside explains why a game may alter ship performance to provide fair progression and prevent one mistake from making a player's position hopeless.