Why unrestricted German shipbuilding threatened the armistice

What would happen if German ship production were not cut so heavily after the First World War?

Britain would enforce the settlement, potentially by continuing the advance into Germany rather than accepting unrestricted yards.

Shipbuilding limits were an enforceable war aim rather than an optional postwar preference. In late 1918 the British Army remained the largest fully worked-up Allied force conducting the main offensives, while France had suffered heavier losses and the American Army was not yet fully developed. Dominion formations from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India increased that strength. Continued German naval production could bring British troops farther into Germany instead of allowing the conflict to close on looser terms.