Why later Japanese rebuilds cannot describe the 1910s fleet

Were these early Japanese battleships already top-heavy ships with excessive turrets and questionable armour?

That criticism imports features and reputations of later rebuilds into the 1910s designs.

The criticism refers to Japanese ships after later modernization, while this scenario concerns their 1910s configurations. Large pagoda structures and other interwar alterations belong to a different version of the ships. The answer rejects describing the early designs as already top-heavy or inadequately protected for their period. Comparing the two eras requires separating the original design from subsequent additions.