Why heavy-gunned German destroyers struggled

Why were German destroyers such as the Narvik types considered poor?

Their powerful guns came with slow firing rates and an unbalanced layout, leaving them less effective than British destroyers in the conditions where rapid, concentrated fire mattered.

These ships were not inherently bad; their hulls and machinery had useful qualities. The problem was trying to give a destroyer a cruiser-like gun outfit without the supporting arrangement. Against Tribals, lower rates of fire and fewer guns bearing forward reduced their chance to generate hits despite heavier shells. An earlier book discussion adds a historiographical warning: diagrams and design overlays can expose claims that the Narvik design was a wholly new leap when much of the layout repeated its predecessor.