When impractical limits make evasion normal

The criticism of the 35,000-ton ceiling is that it makes evasion a condition of building an adequate capital ship. Treating water as armour in the Nelson-class calculations is offered as a British example of working around the nominal limit. Once false declarations become routine, confidence in the remaining rules also erodes. This critique connects restrictions on new construction and upgrades with the wartime vulnerability of Hood, Prince of Wales, and Repulse. The wider objection concerns rules that cannot be enforced or obeyed without compromising the ships they govern.