Italy can optimize for the Mediterranean but loses its qualitative escape

An equal ceiling sits awkwardly with Italy's traditional strategy of compensating for limited industrial scale through individually high-quality ships. The country could not yet mass-produce capital ships like the largest powers, so design excellence offered a way to claim major-power capability. A 25,000-ton envelope could still yield a very effective battleship optimized for Mediterranean conditions. The same rule, however, prevents Italy from building an exceptional ship larger or more powerful than the mass-produced foreign designs. What looks like useful cost stability therefore also removes Italy's preferred qualitative escape from a numbers contest.