Why did the Didos have limited postwar lives?

Why was the Royal Navy concerned about the Dido class's longevity?

They were densely packed wartime ships with almost no spare internal volume, making them less suitable for long peacetime service and later adaptation.

The Didos were built for wartime need rather than for long peacetime careers. Their hulls contained very little spare volume because nearly every part of the design had already been assigned a function. That lack of margin limited comfort, modernization, and long-term adaptability after the immediate emergency passed. Tribal-class destroyers can be described as destroyers built on cruiser lines, while the Didos were cruisers built on destroyer lines. The comparison explains why a capable wartime ship could still leave service relatively quickly.