The strategic criticism of German battlecruisers centres on their cost within the Kaiserliche Marine's tightly controlled budget. Britain possessed global infrastructure and imperial trade commitments that gave commerce-protection ships a purpose, whereas Germany could not expect to defend its overseas empire against Britain in the same way. Building a miniature Royal Navy also competed with the army for resources. The proposed alternative was to improve and accelerate the battle fleet, adding a qualitative contest to the quantitative naval race. In this reading, expensive status ships did too little to increase the diplomatic leverage expected from risk-fleet strategy.
Notable Point · 18:00-20:00
Why German battlecruisers strained risk-fleet strategy
The strategic criticism is that German battlecruisers diverted a restricted budget from faster, stronger battleships that could have put more pressure on Britain.