The Hellenic Navy had many islands to reinforce and protect but no capital-ship fleet around which to organize its destroyers. British utility designs offered range and numbers only if purchased in flotilla strength, while the Italian-built leader came closer to Greek fighting needs without solving the numerical problem. The argument favors a J-, K-, N-, or Tribal-scale ship for the power Greece needed against Italian forces. A cheaper alternative might have paired a few destroyer leaders with larger numbers of torpedo boats, but Greece also wanted the endurance and survivability of full destroyers. The result was a force caught between demanding missions, limited finance, and orders too small to reproduce British mass tactics.
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Greece lacked the destroyer force its islands required
Greece needed powerful, mobile ships to reinforce islands and deter Italy, but money and small orders left it between an unaffordable fleet destroyer and an insufficient utility force.