Germany could afford more cruisers than its program delivered

Were three Deutschlands and five Hippers all that Germany could afford?

No. Germany could have produced more useful ships if it had stopped repeatedly changing direction and building inefficient designs.

Germany's small cruiser force cannot be explained simply by a lack of money. Repeated starts, cancellations, redesigns, and ships poorly matched to their intended jobs consumed industrial effort without producing a coherent series of interchangeable fleet units. The problem was how the money was spent and how often policy changed. Procurement failure can waste substantial resources even while a state continues spending heavily.