Why Implacables would yield to Audacious and Malta carriers

How many Implacable or Audacious-class carriers would Britain ideally need?

Implacables were an interim step; Britain would prefer as many Malta-class carriers as it could obtain once the later design was available.

Implacable is an intermediate design rather than a class the Royal Navy would mass-produce once Audacious and then Malta became available. A large run would resemble the American Essex programme and makes more sense if war begins later, giving British yards time to mobilize around the design. Under the actual sequence, Audacious is another step and Malta is the desired endpoint. The ideal fleet therefore depends on timing, yard capacity, and the opportunity to switch production rather than on a fixed number of Implacables.